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IoT An Overview

IoT an Overview

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IoT An Overview

IoT an Overview

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HarshaAchyutuni

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The Internet of Things:

An Overview
Understanding the Issues and Challenges of a More
Connected World
By Karen Rose, Scott Eldridge, Lyman Chapin

15 OCTOBER 2015

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction........................................................................................................................................................ 4
What is the Internet of Things? ......................................................................................................................... 7
Origins, Drivers, and Applications ................................................................................................................. 7
Different Definitions, Similar Concepts ....................................................................................................... 11
Internet of Things Communications Models................................................................................................ 13
Device-to-Device Communications ......................................................................................................... 13
Device-to-Cloud Communications .......................................................................................................... 14
Device-to-Gateway Model ...................................................................................................................... 15
Back-End Data-Sharing Model ............................................................................................................... 16
Internet of Things Communications Models Summary ........................................................................... 18
What issues are raised by the Internet of Things? .......................................................................................... 20
Security Issues............................................................................................................................................ 20
The IoT Security Challenge .................................................................................................................... 20
A Spectrum of Security Considerations .................................................................................................. 21
Unique Security Challenges of IoT Devices ........................................................................................... 22
IoT Security Questions ........................................................................................................................... 24
Privacy Considerations ............................................................................................................................... 26
Internet of Things Privacy Background ................................................................................................... 26
Unique Privacy Aspects of Internet of Things ......................................................................................... 27
IoT Privacy Questions ............................................................................................................................. 28
Interoperability / Standards Issues.............................................................................................................. 29
IoT Interoperability / Standards Background .......................................................................................... 29
Key Considerations and Challenges in IoT Interoperability / Standards................................................. 31
Interoperability Questions ....................................................................................................................... 33
Regulatory, Legal, and Rights Issues ......................................................................................................... 34
Data Protection and Crossborder Data Flows ........................................................................................ 34
IoT Data Discrimination .......................................................................................................................... 35
IoT Devices as Aids to Law Enforcement and Public Safety .................................................................. 36
IoT Device Liability .................................................................................................................................. 38
Proliferation of IoT Devices Used in Legal Actions ................................................................................. 38
Regulatory, Legal, and Rights Issues Summary ..................................................................................... 39
Emerging Economy and Development Issues ............................................................................................ 40
Ensuring IoT Opportunities are Global ................................................................................................... 40
Economic and Development Opportunities ............................................................................................ 40
IoT Emerging Economy and Development Questions ............................................................................ 43
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 45
For More Information ....................................................................................................................................... 46
Notes and Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ 50

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Executive Summary
The Internet of Things is an emerging topic of technical, social, and economic significance. Consumer
products, durable goods, cars and trucks, industrial and utility components, sensors, and other everyday
objects are being combined with Internet connectivity and powerful data analytic capabilities that promise to
transform the way we work, live, and play. Projections for the impact of IoT on the Internet and economy are
impressive, with some anticipating as many as 100 billion connected IoT devices and a global economic
impact of more than $11 trillion by 2025.
At the same time, however, the Internet of Things raises significant challenges that could stand in the way of
realizing its potential benefits. Attention-grabbing headlines about the hacking of Internet-connected devices,
surveillance concerns, and privacy fears already have captured public attention. Technical challenges
remain and new policy, legal and development challenges are emerging.
This overview document is designed to help the Internet Society community navigate the dialogue
surrounding the Internet of Things in light of the competing predictions about its promises and perils. The
Internet of Things engages a broad set of ideas that are complex and intertwined from different perspectives.
Key concepts that serve as a foundation for exploring the opportunities and challenges of IoT include:

IoT Definitions: The term Internet of Things generally refers to scenarios where network
connectivity and computing capability extends to objects, sensors and everyday items not normally
considered computers, allowing these devices to generate, exchange and consume data with
minimal human intervention. There is, however, no single, universal definition.

Enabling Technologies: The concept of combining computers, sensors, and networks to monitor
and control devices has existed for decades. The recent confluence of several technology market
trends, however, is bringing the Internet of Things closer to widespread reality. These include
Ubiquitous Connectivity, Widespread Adoption of IP-based Networking, Computing Economics,
Miniaturization, Advances in Data Analytics, and the Rise of Cloud Computing.

Connectivity Models: IoT implementations use different technical communications models, each
with its own characteristics. Four common communications models described by the Internet
Architecture Board include: Device-to-Device, Device-to-Cloud, Device-to-Gateway, and Back-End
Data-Sharing. These models highlight the flexibility in the ways that IoT devices can connect and
provide value to the user.

Transformational Potential: If the projections and trends towards IoT become reality, it may force
a shift in thinking about the implications and issues in a world where the most common interaction
with the Internet comes from passive engagement with connected objects rather than active
engagement with content. The potential realization of this outcome a hyperconnected world -- is
testament to the general-purpose nature of the Internet architecture itself, which does not place
inherent limitations on the applications or services that can make use of the technology.

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Five key IoT issue areas are examined to explore some of the most pressing challenges and questions
related to the technology. These include security; privacy; interoperability and standards; legal, regulatory,
and rights; and emerging economies and development.

Security: While security considerations are not new in the context of information technology, the
attributes of many IoT implementations present new and unique security challenges. Addressing
these challenges and ensuring security in IoT products and services must be a fundamental priority.
Users need to trust that IoT devices and related data services are secure from vulnerabilities,
especially as this technology become more pervasive and integrated into our daily lives. Poorly
secured IoT devices and services can serve as potential entry points for cyber attack and expose
user data to theft by leaving data streams inadequately protected.
The interconnected nature of IoT devices means that every poorly secured device that is connected
online potentially affects the security and resilience of the Internet globally. This challenge is
amplified by other considerations like the mass-scale deployment of homogenous IoT devices, the
ability of some devices to automatically connect to other devices, and the likelihood of fielding these
devices in unsecure environments.
As a matter of principle, developers and users of IoT devices and systems have a collective
obligation to ensure they do not expose users and the Internet itself to potential harm. Accordingly, a
collaborative approach to security will be needed to develop effective and appropriate solutions to
IoT security challenges that are well suited to the scale and complexity of the issues.

Privacy: The full potential of the Internet of Things depends on strategies that respect individual
privacy choices across a broad spectrum of expectations. The data streams and user specificity
afforded by IoT devices can unlock incredible and unique value to IoT users, but concerns about
privacy and potential harms might hold back full adoption of the Internet of Things. This means that
privacy rights and respect for user privacy expectations are integral to ensuring user trust and
confidence in the Internet, connected devices, and related services.
Indeed, the Internet of Things is redefining the debate about privacy issues, as many
implementations can dramatically change the ways personal data is collected, analyzed, used, and
protected. For example, IoT amplifies concerns about the potential for increased surveillance and
tracking, difficulty in being able to opt out of certain data collection, and the strength of aggregating
IoT data streams to paint detailed digital portraits of users. While these are important challenges,
they are not insurmountable. In order to realize the opportunities, strategies will need to be
developed to respect individual privacy choices across a broad spectrum of expectations, while still
fostering innovation in new technology and services.

Interoperability / Standards: A fragmented environment of proprietary IoT technical

implementations will inhibit value for users and industry. While full interoperability across products
and services is not always feasible or necessary, purchasers may be hesitant to buy IoT products
and services if there is integration inflexibility, high ownership complexity, and concern over vendor
lock-in.

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In addition, poorly designed and configured IoT devices may have negative consequences for the
networking resources they connect to and the broader Internet. Appropriate standards, reference
models, and best practices also will help curb the proliferation of devices that may act in disrupted
ways to the Internet. The use of generic, open, and widely available standards as technical building
blocks for IoT devices and services (such as the Internet Protocol) will support greater user benefits,
innovation, and economic opportunity.

Legal, Regulatory and Rights: The use of IoT devices raises many new regulatory and legal
questions as well as amplifies existing legal issues around the Internet. The questions are wide in
scope, and the rapid rate of change in IoT technology frequently outpaces the ability of the
associated policy, legal, and regulatory structures to adapt.
One set of issues surrounds crossborder data flows, which occur when IoT devices collect data
about people in one jurisdiction and transmit it to another jurisdiction with different data protection
laws for processing. Further, data collected by IoT devices is sometimes susceptible to misuse,
potentially causing discriminatory outcomes for some users. Other legal issues with IoT devices
include the conflict between law enforcement surveillance and civil rights; data retention and
destruction policies; and legal liability for unintended uses, security breaches or privacy lapses.
While the legal and regulatory challenges are broad and complex in scope, adopting the guiding
Internet Society principles of promoting a users ability to connect, speak, innovate, share, choose,
and trust are core considerations for evolving IoT laws and regulations that enable user rights.

Emerging Economy and Development Issues: The Internet of Things holds significant promise
for delivering social and economic benefits to emerging and developing economies. This includes
areas such as sustainable agriculture, water quality and use, healthcare, industrialization, and
environmental management, among others. As such, IoT holds promise as a tool in achieving the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The broad scope of IoT challenges will not be unique to industrialized countries. Developing regions
also will need to respond to realize the potential benefits of IoT. In addition, the unique needs and
challenges of implementation in less-developed regions will need to be addressed, including
infrastructure readiness, market and investment incentives, technical skill requirements, and policy
resources.

The Internet of Things is happening now. It promises to offer a revolutionary, fully connected smart world
as the relationships between objects, their environment, and people become more tightly intertwined. Yet the
issues and challenges associated with IoT need to be considered and addressed in order for the potential
benefits for individuals, society, and the economy to be realized.
Ultimately, solutions for maximizing the benefits of the Internet of Things while minimizing the risks will not
be found by engaging in a polarized debate that pits the promises of IoT against its possible perils. Rather, it
will take informed engagement, dialogue, and collaboration across a range of stakeholders to plot the most
effective ways forward.

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Introduction
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an important topic in technology industry, policy, and engineering circles and
has become headline news in both the specialty press and the popular media. This technology is embodied
in a wide spectrum of networked products, systems, and sensors, which take advantage of advancements in
computing power, electronics miniaturization, and network interconnections to offer new capabilities not
previously possible. An abundance of conferences, reports, and news articles discuss and debate the
prospective impact of the IoT revolutionfrom new market opportunities and business models to concerns
about security, privacy, and technical interoperability.
The large-scale implementation of IoT devices promises to transform many aspects of the way we live. For
consumers, new IoT products like Internet-enabled appliances, home automation components, and energy
management devices are moving us toward a vision of the smart home, offering more security and energyefficiency. Other personal IoT devices like wearable fitness and health monitoring devices and networkenabled medical devices are transforming the way healthcare services are delivered. This technology
promises to be beneficial for people with disabilities and the elderly, enabling improved levels of
1

independence and quality of life at a reasonable cost. IoT systems like networked vehicles, intelligent traffic
systems, and sensors embedded in roads and bridges move us closer to the idea of smart cities, which
help minimize congestion and energy consumption. IoT technology offers the possibility to transform
agriculture, industry, and energy production and distribution by increasing the availability of information along
the value chain of production using networked sensors. However, IoT raises many issues and challenges
that need to be considered and addressed in order for potential benefits to be realized.
A number of companies and research organizations have offered a wide range of projections about the
potential impact of IoT on the Internet and the economy during the next five to ten years. Cisco, for example,
2

projects more than 24 billion Internetconnected objects by 2019; Morgan Stanley, however, projects 75
3

billion networked devices by 2020. Looking out further and raising the stakes higher, Huawei forecasts 100
4

billion IoT connections by 2025. McKinsey Global Institute suggests that the financial impact of IoT on the
5

global economy may be as much as $3.9 to $11.1 trillion by 2025. While the variability in predictions makes
any specific number questionable, collectively they paint a picture of significant growth and influence.

For more information on IoT as it relates with those with disabilities see for example: Valerio, Pablo. Google: IoT Can Help The
Disabled. InformationWeek, March 10, 2015. http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/google-iot-can-help-thedisabled/a/d-id/1319404; and, Domingo, Mari Carmen. An Overview of the Internet of Things for People with Disabilities. Journal of
Network and Computer Applications 35, no. 2 (March 2012): 58496. doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2011.10.015.
2

Cloud and Mobile Network Traffic Forecast - Visual Networking Index (VNI). Cisco, 2015. http://cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/serviceprovider/visual-networking-index-vni/index.html
3

Danova, Tony. Morgan Stanley: 75 Billion Devices Will Be Connected To The Internet Of Things By 2020. Business Insider, October
2, 2013. http://www.businessinsider.com/75-billion-devices-will-be-connected-to-the-internet-by-2020-2013-10
4

"Global Connectivity Index." Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., 2015. Web. 6 Sept. 2015.
http://www.huawei.com/minisite/gci/en/index.html
5

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Some observers see the IoT as a revolutionary fullyinterconnected smart world of progress, efficiency,
6

and opportunity, with the potential for adding billions in value to industry and the global economy. Others
warn that the IoT represents a darker world of surveillance, privacy and security violations, and consumer
7

lockin. Attention-grabbing headlines about the hacking of Internet-connected automobiles, surveillance

concerns stemming from voice recognition features in smart TVs, and privacy fears stemming from the
9

potential misuse of IoT data have captured public attention. This promise vs. peril debate along with an
influx of information though popular media and marketing can make the IoT a complex topic to understand.
Fundamentally, the Internet Society cares about the IoT as it represents a growing aspect of how people and
institutions are likely to interact with the Internet in their personal, social, and economic lives. If even modest
projections are correct, an explosion of IoT applications could present a fundamental shift in how users
engage with and are impacted by the Internet, raising new issues and different dimensions of existing
challenges across user/consumer concerns, technology, policy and law. IoT also will likely have varying
consequences in different economies and regions, bringing a diverse set of opportunities and challenges
across the globe.
This overview document is designed to help the Internet Society community navigate the dialogue
surrounding the Internet of Things in light of the competing predictions about its promises and perils. It
provides a high-level overview of the basics of IoT and some of the key issues and questions that this
10,11

technology raises from the perspective of the Internet Society and the core values we promote.

It also

acknowledges some of the unique aspects of the Internet of Things that make this a transformational
technology for the Internet.
As this is intended to be an overview document, we do not propose a specific course of action for ISOC on
IoT at this time. Rather, we see this document as an informational resource and starting point for discussion
within the ISOC community on IoT-related issues.

Thierer, Adam, and Andrea Castillo. Projecting the Growth and Economic Impact of The Internet of Things. George Mason University,
Mercatus Center, June 15, 2015. http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/IoT-EP-v3.pdf
7

Greenberg, Andy. Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the HighwayWith Me in It. WIRED, July 21, 2015.
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
8

Samsung Smart TVs Voice Recognition Creates Privacy Concerns. CBS This Morning. CBS News, February 10, 2015.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/samsung-smart-tvs-voice-recognition-creates-privacy-concerns/
9

Bradbury, Danny. How Can Privacy Survive in the Era of the Internet of Things? The Guardian, April 7, 2015, sec. Technology.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/07/how-can-privacy-survive-the-internet-of-things
10

"Values and Principles." Principles. Internet Society, 2015. http://www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/mission/values-and-principles

A wide range of papers and articles have been written on the topic of IoT. Readers interested in more detail beyond the scope of this
paper should investigate the literature noted in the footnotes and in the Reference section at the end of this paper.

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We organize this paper into three main sections:

What is the Internet of Things?, which provides an overview of its origins, definitions, and
technical connectivity models;

What issues are raised by the Internet of Things?, which provides an introduction and discussion
of concerns that have been raised about IoT, and;

For Further Information, which provides additional information and pointers to efforts around the
world addressing IoT issues.

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What is the Internet of Things?

Origins, Drivers, and Applications
The term Internet of Things (IoT) was first used in 1999 by British technology pioneer Kevin Ashton to
describe a system in which objects in the physical world could be connected to the Internet by sensors.

Ashton coined the term to illustrate the power of connecting Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags

used in corporate supply chains to the Internet in order to count and track goods without the need for human
intervention. Today, the Internet of Things has become a popular term for describing scenarios in which
Internet connectivity and computing capability extend to a variety of objects, devices, sensors, and everyday
items.
While the term Internet of Things is relatively new, the concept of combining computers and networks to
monitor and control devices has been around for decades. By the late 1970s, for example, systems for
14

remotely monitoring meters on the electrical grid via telephone lines were already in commercial use.

In the

1990s, advances in wireless technology allowed machinetomachine (M2M) enterprise and industrial
solutions for equipment monitoring and operation to become widespread. Many of these early M2M
solutions, however, were based on closed purposebuilt networks and proprietary or industryspecific
standards,

rather than on Internet Protocol (IP)based networks and Internet standards.

Using IP to connect devices other than computers to the Internet is not a new idea. The first Internet
devicean IPenabled toaster that could be turned on and off over the Internetwas featured at an
Internet conference in 1990.
machine

Over the next several years, other things were IPenabled, including a soda

at Carnegie Mellon University in the US and a coffee pot

in the Trojan Room at the University of

Cambridge in the UK (which remained Internetconnected until 2001). From these whimsical beginnings, a
19

robust field of research and development into smart object networking

helped create the foundation for

todays Internet of Things.

Ashton was working on RFID (radio-frequency identification) devices, and the close association of RFID and other sensor networks
with the development of the IoT concept is reflected in the name of the RFID device company that Ashton joined later in his career:
ThingMagic.
13

Radio-Frequency Identification. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, September 6, 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiofrequency_identification

Machine to Machine. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, August 20, 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_to_machine

Polsonetti, Chantal. Know the Difference Between IoT and M2M. Automation World, July 15, 2014.
http://www.automationworld.com/cloud-computing/know-difference-between-iot-and-m2m
16

"The Internet Toaster." Living Internet, 7 Jan. 2000. Web. 06 Sept. 2015. http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ia_myths_toast.htm

"The "Only" Coke Machine on the Internet." Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Department, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2015.
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coke/history_long.txt
18

Stafford-Fraser, Quentin. "The Trojan Room Coffee Pot." N.p., May 1995. Web. 06 Sept. 2015.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/qsf/coffee.html
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RFC 7452, Architectural Considerations in Smart Object Networking (March 2015), https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7452

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If the idea of connecting objects to each other and to the Internet is not new, it is reasonable to ask, Why is
the Internet of Things a newly popular topic today?
From a broad perspective, the confluence of several technology and market trends

is making it possible to

interconnect more and smaller devices cheaply and easily:

Ubiquitous ConnectivityLowcost, highspeed, pervasive network connectivity, especially through

licensed and unlicensed wireless services and technology, makes almost everything connectable.

Widespread adoption of IPbased networking IP has become the dominant global standard for
networking, providing a welldefined and widely implemented platform of software and tools that can
be incorporated into a broad range of devices easily and inexpensively.

Computing Economics Driven by industry investment in research, development, and

manufacturing, Moores law
lower power consumption.

continues to deliver greater computing power at lower price points and

Miniaturization Manufacturing advances allow cutting-edge computing and communications

technology to be incorporated into very small objects.

Coupled with greater computing economics,

this has fueled the advancement of small and inexpensive sensor devices, which drive many IoT
applications.

Advances in Data Analytics New algorithms and rapid increases in computing power, data storage,
and cloud services enable the aggregation, correlation, and analysis of vast quantities of data; these
large and dynamic datasets provide new opportunities for extracting information and knowledge.

Rise of Cloud Computing Cloud computing, which leverages remote, networked computing
resources to process, manage, and store data, allows small and distributed devices to interact with
powerful back-end analytic and control capabilities.

From this perspective, the IoT represents the convergence of a variety of computing and connectivity trends
that have been evolving for many decades. At present, a wide range of industry sectors including
automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, home and consumer electronics, and well beyond -- are considering
the potential for incorporating IoT technology into their products, services, and operations.

Other views on the converging market trends driving IoTs growth include Susan Conants article The IoT will be as fundamental as
the Internet itself, available at http://radar.oreilly.com/2015/06/the-iot-will-be-as-fundamental-as-the-internet-itself.html and Intel
Corporations statement to U.S. House of Representatives hearing on IoT, available at
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF17/20150324/103226/HHRG-114-IF17-Wstate-SchoolerR-20150324.pdf.
21

Moores Law is named after a trend observed by semiconductor pioneer Gordon Moore that the number of transistors per square inch
on integrated circuits doubles roughly every two years, allowing more processing power to be placed into smaller chips over time.
22

For a discussion about Internet device energy use and low power computing, see the lecture by Jon Koomey at the How green is the
Internet? summit available at https://www.youtube.com/embed/O8-LDLyKaBM
23

In addition to other technical advancements, miniaturization of electronic devices is also fueled by Moores law.

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In their report Unlocking the Potential of the Internet of Things, the McKinsey Global Institute

describes

the broad range of potential applications in terms of settings where IoT is expected to create value for
industry and users.

Settings for IoT Applications (Source: McKinsey Global Institute25)

Setting

Description

Examples

Human

Devices attached or
inside the human
body

Devices (wearables and ingestibles) to monitor and

maintain human health and wellness; disease
management, increased fitness, higher productivity

Home

Buildings where
people live

Home controllers and security systems

Retail
Environments

Spaces where
consumers engage in
commerce

Stores, banks, restaurants, arenas anywhere

consumers consider and buy; self-checkout, in-store
offers, inventory optimization

Offices

Spaces where
knowledge workers
work

Energy management and security in office buildings;

improved productivity, including for mobile employees

Factories

Standardized
production
environments

Places with repetitive work routines, including hospitals

and farms; operating efficiencies, optimizing equipment
use and inventory

Worksites

Custom production
environments

Mining, oil and gas, construction; operating efficiencies,

predictive maintenance, health and safety

Vehicles

Systems inside
moving vehicles

Vehicles including cars, trucks, ships, aircraft, and

trains; condition-based maintenance, usage-based
design, pre-sales analytics

Cities

Urban environments

Public spaces and infrastructure in urban settings;

adaptive traffic control, smart meters, environmental
monitoring, resource management

Outside

Between urban
environments (and
outside other settings)

Outside uses include railroad tracks, autonomous

vehicles (outside urban locations), and flight navigation;
real-time routing, connected navigation, shipment
tracking

Manyika, James, Michael Chui, Peter Bisson, Jonathan Woetzel, Richard Dobbs, Jacques Bughin, and Dan Aharon. The Internet of
Things: Mapping the Value Beyond the Hype. McKinsey Global Institute, June 2015. p.3.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/the_internet_of_things_the_value_of_digitizing_the_physical_world
25

Ibid.

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

Many organizations have developed their own taxonomies and categorizations of IoT applications and use
cases. For example, Industrial IoT is a term widely used by companies and associations to describe IoT
applications related to the production of goods and services, including in manufacturing and utilities.
discuss IoT by device type, such as wearables

and appliances.

Others

Still others focus on IoT in the context of

integrated location-based implementations such as smart homes or smart cities.

Whatever the

application, it is clear that IoT use cases could extend to nearly every aspect of our lives.
As the number of Internet-connected devices grows, the amount of traffic they generate is expected to rise
significantly. For example, Cisco estimates that Internet traffic generated by non-PC devices will rise from
30

40% in 2014 to just under 70% in 2019.

Cisco also forecasts that the number of Machine to Machine

(M2M) connections (including in industrial, home, healthcare, automotive, and other IoT verticals) will rise
from 24% of all connected devices in 2014 to 43% in 2019.
One implication of these trends is that over the next ten years we could see a shift in the popular notion of
what it means to be on the Internet. As MIT Professor Neil Gershenfied noted, [T]he rapid growth of the
World Wide Web may have been just the trigger charge that is now setting off the real explosion, as things
start to use the Net.

In the popular mindset, the World Wide Web has almost become synonymous with the Internet itself. Web
technologies facilitate most interactions between people and content, making it a defining characteristic of
the current Internet experience. The Web-based experience is largely characterized by the active
engagement of users downloading and generating content through computers and smartphones. If the
growth projections about IoT become reality, we may see a shift towards more passive Internet interaction
by users with objects such as car components, home appliances and self-monitoring devices; these devices
send and receive data on the users behalf, with little human intervention or even awareness.
IoT may force a shift in thinking if the most common interaction with the Internet -- and the data derived and
exchanged from that interaction -- comes from passive engagement with connected objects in the broader
environment. The potential realization of this outcome a hyperconnected world -- is a testament to the
general-purpose nature of the Internet architecture, which does not place inherent limitations on the
applications or services that can make use of the technology.

Cicciari, Matt. "What's Missing from the Industrial Internet of Things Conversation? Software." Wired.
http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/industrial-internet-of-things-software/
27

"Internet of Things: Wearables." Application Developers Alliance. http://www.appdevelopersalliance.org/internet-of-things/wearables/

Baguley, Richard, and Colin McDonald. Appliance Science: The Internet of Toasters (and Other Things). CNET, March 2, 2015.
http://www.cnet.com/news/appliance-science-the-internet-of-toasters-and-other-things/
29

"IEEE Smart Cities." IEEE, 2015. Web. 06 Sept. 2015. http://smartcities.ieee.org/

Cisco Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology, 2014-2019. Cisco, May 27, 2015.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/ip-ngn-ip-next-generation-network/white_paper_c11-481360.pdf
31

"History of the Internet of Things- Postscapes." Postscapes, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2015. http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-history

For a further discussion about the fundamental characteristics of the Internet and its architecture see the Internet Society Paper
Internet Invariants: What Really Matters, available at http://www.internetsociety.org/internet-invariants-what-really-matters

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

Different Definitions, Similar Concepts

Despite the global buzz around the Internet of Things, there is no single, universally accepted definition for
the term. Different definitions are used by various groups to describe or promote a particular view of what
IoT means and its most important attributes. Some definitions specify the concept of the Internet or the
Internet Protocol (IP), while others, perhaps surprisingly, do not. For example, consider the following
definitions.
33

The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) begins RFC 7452,

Architectural Considerations in Smart Object

Networking, with this description:

The term "Internet of Things" (IoT) denotes a trend where a large number of embedded devices
employ communication services offered by the Internet protocols. Many of these devices, often
called "smart objects, are not directly operated by humans, but exist as components in buildings or
vehicles, or are spread out in the environment.
Within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the term smart object networking is commonly used in
reference to the Internet of Things. In this context, smart objects are devices that typically have significant
constraints, such as limited power, memory, and processing resources, or bandwidth.

Work in the IETF is

organized around specific requirements to achieve network interoperability between several types of smart
objects.

Published in 2012, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ITUT Recommendation Y.2060,
Overview of the Internet of things,

discusses the concept of interconnectivity, but does not specifically tie

the IoT to the Internet:

3.2.2 Internet of things (IoT): A global infrastructure for the information society, enabling advanced
services by interconnecting (physical and virtual) things based on existing and evolving
interoperable information and communication technologies.
Note 1Through the exploitation of identification, data capture, processing and communication
capabilities, the IoT makes full use of things to offer services to all kinds of applications, whilst
ensuring that security and privacy requirements are fulfilled.
Note 2From a broader perspective, the IoT can be perceived as a vision with technological and
societal implications.

RFC 7452, Architectural Considerations in Smart Object Networking (March 2015), https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7452

Thaler, Dave, Hannes Tschofenig, and Mary Barnes. "Architectural Considerations in Smart Object Networking." IETF 92 Technical
Plenary - IAB RFC 7452. 6 Sept. 2015. Web. https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/92/slides/slides-92-iab-techplenary-2.pdf
35

"Int Area Wiki - Internet-of-Things Directorate." IOTDirWiki. IETF, n.d. Web. 06 Sept. 2015.
http://trac.tools.ietf.org/area/int/trac/wiki/IOTDirWiki
36

Overview of the Internet of Things. ITU, June 15, 2012. http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/recommendations/rec.aspx?rec=Y.2060

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

This definition in a call for papers for a feature topic issue of IEEE Communications Magazine

links the IoT

back to cloud services:

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a framework in which all things have a representation and a
presence in the Internet. More specifically, the Internet of Things aims at offering new applications
and services bridging the physical and virtual worlds, in which Machine-to-Machine (M2M)
communications represents the baseline communication that enables the interactions between
Things and applications in the cloud.
The Oxford Dictionaries

offers a concise definition that invokes the Internet as an element of the IoT:

Internet of things (noun): The interconnection via the Internet of computing devices embedded in
everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.
All of the definitions describe scenarios in which network connectivity and computing capability extends to a
constellation of objects, devices, sensors, and everyday items that are not ordinarily considered to be
computers; this allows the devices to generate, exchange, and consume data, often with minimal human
intervention. The various definitions of IoT do not necessarily disagree rather they emphasize different
aspects of the IoT phenomenon from different focal points and use cases.
However, the disparate definitions could be a source of confusion in dialogue on IoT issues, particularly in
discussions between stakeholder groups or industry segments. Similar confusion was experienced in recent
years about net neutrality and cloud computing, where different interpretations of the terms sometimes
presented obstacles to dialogue. While it is probably unnecessary to develop a single definition of IoT, it
should be recognized that there are different perspectives to be factored into discussions.
For the purposes of this paper, the terms Internet of Things and IoT refer broadly to the extension of
network connectivity and computing capability to objects, devices, sensors, and items not ordinarily
considered to be computers. These smart objects require minimal human intervention to generate,
exchange, and consume data; they often feature connectivity to remote data collection, analysis, and
management capabilities.
Networking and communications models for smart objects include those where exchanged data does not
traverse the Internet or an IP-based network. We include those models in our broad description of Internet
of Things used for this paper. We do so as it is likely that the data generated or processed from those smart
objects will ultimately pass through gateways with connectivity to IP-based networks or will otherwise be
incorporated into product features that are accessible via the Internet. Furthermore, users of IoT devices are
likely to be more concerned with the services delivered and the implication of using those services than
issues of when or where data passes through an IP-based network.

http://www.comsoc.org/commag/cfp/internet-thingsm2m-research-standards-next-steps

"Internet of Things." Oxford Dictionaries, n.d. Web. 6 Sept. 2015.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/Internet-of-things

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

Internet of Things Communications Models

From an operational perspective, it is useful to think about how IoT devices connect and communicate in
terms of their technical communication models. In March 2015, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
39

released a guiding architectural document for networking of smart objects (RFC 7452),

which outlines a

framework of four common communication models used by IoT devices. The discussion below presents this
framework and explains key characteristics of each model in the framework.

Device-to-Device Communications
The device-to-device communication model represents two or more devices that directly connect and
communicate between one another, rather than through an intermediary application server. These devices
communicate over many types of networks, including IP networks or the Internet. Often, however these
devices use protocols like Bluetooth,

Z-Wave,

or ZigBee

to establish direct device-to-device

communications, as shown
in Figure 1.
Device&to&Device)Communica/on)Model)

Light)
Bulb)

Wireless)
Network)

Manufacturer)A)

Bluetooth,)Z+Wave,)ZigBee)

Light)
Switch)
Manufacturer)B)

Source:))Tschofenig,)H.,)et.)al.,)Architectural)Considera/ons)in)Smart)Object)Networking.)Tech.)no.)RFC)7452.)Internet)Architecture)Board,)Mar.)2015.)Web.)
<hRps://www.rfc&editor.org/rfc/rfc7452.txt>.)

Figure 1. Example of device-to-device communication model.

These device-to-device networks allow devices that adhere to a particular communication protocol to
communicate and exchange messages to achieve their function. This communication model is commonly
used in applications like home automation systems, which typically use small data packets of information to
communicate between devices with relatively low data rate requirements. Residential IoT devices like light
bulbs, light switches, thermostats, and door locks normally send small amounts of information to each other
(e.g. a door lock status message or turn on light command) in a home automation scenario.
This device-to-device communication approach illustrates many of the interoperability challenges discussed
later in this paper. As an IETF Journal article describes, these devices often have a direct relationship, they
usually have built-in security and trust [mechanisms], but they also use device-specific data models that

Tschofenig, H., et. al., Architectural Considerations in Smart Object Networking. Tech. no. RFC 7452. Internet Architecture Board,
Mar. 2015. Web. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7452.txt
40

See http://www.bluetooth.com and http://www.bluetooth.org

See http://www.z-wave.com

See http://www.zigbee.org

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

require redundant development efforts [by device manufacturers].

This means that the device

manufacturers need to invest in development efforts to implement device-specific data formats rather than
open approaches that enable use of standard data formats.
From the users point of view, this often means that underlying device-to-device communication protocols
are not compatible, forcing the user to select a family of devices that employ a common protocol. For
example, the family of devices using the Z-Wave protocol is not natively compatible with the ZigBee family of
devices. While these incompatibilities limit user choice to devices within a particular protocol family, the user
benefits from knowing that products within a particular family tend to communicate well.

Device-to-Cloud Communications
In a device-to-cloud communication model, the IoT device connects directly to an Internet cloud service like
an application service provider to exchange data and control message traffic. This approach frequently takes
advantage of existing communications mechanisms like traditional wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi connections to
establish a connection between the device and the IP network, which ultimately connects to the cloud
service. This is shown in Figure
2.
DeviceQtoQCloud(Communica9on(Model(

HTTP$
TLS$
TCP$
IP$

Applica9on(Service(
Provider(

CoAP$
DTLS$
UDP$
IP$

Device(with(
Carbon(
Monoxide(
Sensor(

Device(with(
Temperature(
Sensor(

Source:((Tschofenig,(H.,(et.(al.,(Architectural(Considera9ons(in(Smart(Object(Networking.(Tech.(no.(RFC(7452.(Internet(Architecture(Board,(Mar.(2015.(Web.(
<hNps://www.rfcQeditor.org/rfc/rfc7452.txt>.(

Figure 2. Device-to-cloud communication model diagram.

This communication model is employed by some popular consumer IoT devices like the Nest Labs Learning
Thermostat

and the Samsung SmartTV.

In the case of the Nest Learning Thermostat, the device

transmits data to a cloud database where the data can be used to analyze home energy consumption.
Further, this cloud connection enables the user to obtain remote access to their thermostat via a smartphone
or Web interface, and it also supports software updates to the thermostat. Similarly with the Samsung
SmartTV technology, the television uses an Internet connection to transmit user viewing information to
Samsung for analysis and to enable the interactive voice recognition features of the TV. In these cases, the

Duffy Marsan, Carolyn. "IAB Releases Guidelines for Internet-of-Things Developers." IETF Journal 11.1 (2015): 6-8. Internet
Engineering Task Force, July 2015. Web. https://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/Journal_11.1.pdf
44

Meet the Nest Thermostat | Nest. Nest Labs. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. https://nest.com/thermostat/meet-nest-thermostat/

Samsung Privacy Policy--SmartTV Supplement. Samsung Corp. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

http://www.samsung.com/sg/info/privacy/smarttv.html

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

device-to-cloud model adds value to the end user by extending the capabilities of the device beyond its
native features.
However, interoperability challenges can arise when attempting to integrate devices made by different
manufacturers. Frequently, the device and cloud service are from the same vendor.

If proprietary data

protocols are used between the device and the cloud service, the device owner or user may be tied to a
specific cloud service, limiting or preventing the use of alternative service providers. This is commonly
referred to as vendor lock-in, a term that encompasses other facets of the relationship with the provider
such as ownership of and access to the data. At the same time, users can generally have confidence that
devices designed for the specific platform can be integrated.

Device-to-Gateway Model
In the device-to-gateway model, or more typically, the device-to-application-layer gateway (ALG) model, the
IoT device connects through an ALG service as a conduit to reach a cloud service. In simpler terms, this
means that there is application software operating on a local gateway device, which acts as an intermediary
between the device and the cloud service and provides security and other functionality such as data or
protocol translation. The model is shown in Figure 3.

Applica9on(Service(
Provider(

IPv4/IPv6$

Protocol$
Stack$

HTTP$
TLS$
TCP$
IPv6$

Device(with(
Temperature(
Sensor(

Local(Gateway(

Layer$1$Protocol$
Bluetooth$Smart$
IEEE$802.11$(WiDFi)$
IEEE$802.15.4$(LRDWPAN)$

CoAP$
DTLS$
UDP$
IPv6$

Device(with(
Carbon(
Monoxide(
Sensor(

Figure 3. Device-to-gateway communication model diagram.

Several forms of this model are found in consumer devices. In many cases, the local gateway device is a
smartphone running an app to communicate with a device and relay data to a cloud service. This is often the

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

model employed with popular consumer items like personal fitness trackers. These devices do not have the
native ability to connect directly to a cloud service, so they frequently rely on smartphone app software to
serve as an intermediary gateway to connect the fitness device to the cloud.
The other form of this device-to-gateway model is the emergence of hub devices in home automation
applications. These are devices that serve as a local gateway between individual IoT devices and a cloud
service, but they can also bridge the interoperability gap between devices themselves. For example, the
SmartThings hub is a stand-alone gateway device that has Z-Wave and Zigbee transceivers installed to
communicate with both families of devices.

It then connects to the SmartThings cloud service, allowing the

user to gain access to the devices using a smartphone app and an Internet connection.
From a broader technical perspective, the IETF Journal article explains the benefit of the device-to-gateway
approach:
This [communication model] is used in situations where the smart objects require interoperability with
non-IP [Internet protocol] devices. Sometimes this approach is taken for integrating IPv6-only
devices, which means a gateway is necessary for legacy IPv4-only devices and services.

In other words, this communications model is frequently used to integrate new smart devices into a legacy
system with devices that are not natively interoperable with them. A downside of this approach is that the
necessary development of the application-layer gateway software and system adds complexity and cost to
the overall system.
The IABs RFC7452 document suggests the outlook for this model:
It is expected that in the future, more generic gateways will be deployed to lower cost and
infrastructure complexity for end consumers, enterprises, and industrial environments. Such
generic gateways are more likely to exist if IoT device designs make use of generic Internet
protocols and not require application-layer gateways that translate one application-layer
protocol to another one. The use of application-layer gateways will, in general, lead to a more
fragile deployment, as has been observed in the past

The evolution of systems using the device-to-gateway communication model and its larger role in addressing
interoperability challenges among IoT devices is still unfolding.

Back-End Data-Sharing Model

The back-end data-sharing model refers to a communication architecture that enables users to export and
analyze smart object data from a cloud service in combination with data from other sources. This

How It Works. SmartThings, 2015. http://www.smartthings.com/how-it-works

Tschofenig, H., et. al., p. 6.

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

architecture supports the [users] desire for granting access to the uploaded sensor data to third parties.

This approach is an extension of the single device-to-cloud communication model, which can lead to data
51

silos where IoT devices upload data only to a single application service provider.

A back-end sharing

architecture allows the data collected from single IoT device data streams to be aggregated and analyzed.
For example, a corporate user in charge of an office complex would be interested in consolidating and
analyzing the energy consumption and utilities data produced by all the IoT sensors and Internet-enabled
utility systems on the premises. Often in the single device-to-cloud model, the data each IoT sensor or
system produces sits in a stand-alone data silo. An effective back-end data sharing architecture would allow
the company to easily access and analyze the data in the cloud produced by the whole spectrum of devices
in the building. Also, this kind of architecture facilitates data portability needs. Effective back-end datasharing architectures allow users to move their data when they switch between IoT services, breaking down
traditional data silo barriers.
The back-end data-sharing model suggests a federated cloud services approach

or cloud applications

programmer interfaces (APIs) are needed to achieve interoperability of smart device data hosted in the
53

cloud.

A graphical representation of this design is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Back-end data sharing model diagram.

Tschofenig, H., et. al., p. 9.

Ibid.

A federated cloud services approach is one that combines the resources of separate cloud service providers to meet a larger
business need.
53

An example of a generic (non-IoT) off-the-shelf, federated cloud-sharing tool is ownCloud, produced by ownCloud.org.
https://owncloud.org/blog/faster-easier-file-sync-and-share-with-federated-self-hosted-owncloud-8-0/

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

This architecture model is an approach to achieve interoperability among these back-end systems. As the
IETF Journal suggests, Standard protocols can help but are not sufficient to eliminate data silos because
common information models are needed between the vendors.

In other words, this communication model

is only as effective as the underlying IoT system designs. Back-end data sharing architectures cannot fully
overcome closed system designs.

Internet of Things Communications Models Summary

The four basic communication models demonstrate the underlying design strategies used to allow IoT
devices to communicate. Aside from some technical considerations, the use of these models is largely
influenced by the open versus proprietary nature of the IoT devices being networked. And in the case of the
device-to-gateway model, its primary feature is its ability to overcome proprietary device restrictions in
connecting IoT devices. This means that device interoperability and open standards are key considerations
in the design and development of internetworked IoT systems.
From a general user perspective, these communication models help illustrate the ability of networked
devices to add value to the end user. By enabling the user to achieve better access to an IoT device and its
data, the overall value of the device is amplified. For example, in three of the four communication models,
the devices ultimately connect to data analytic services in a cloud computing setting. By creating data
communication conduits to the cloud, users, and service providers can more readily employ data
aggregation, big data analytics, data visualization, and predictive analytics technologies to get more value
out of IoT data than can be achieved in traditional data-silo applications. In other words, effective
communication architectures are an important driver of value to the end user by opening possibilities of
using information in new ways. It should be noted, however, these networked benefits come with trade-offs.
Careful consideration needs to be paid to the incurred cost burdens placed on users to connect to cloud
resources when considering an architecture, especially in regions where user connectivity costs are high.
While the end user benefits from effective communication models, it should be mentioned that effective IoT
communication models also enhance technical innovation and open opportunity for commercial growth. New
products and services can be designed to take advantage of IoT data streams that didnt exist previously,
acting as a catalyst for further innovation.

Duffy Marsan, Carolyn. p.7

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IPv6 and the Internet of Things

Though they differ about the exact numbers, most technology observers agree that billions of additional
devices from industrial sensors to home appliances and vehicles will be connected to the Internet
between now and 2025. As the Internet of Things continues to grow, devices that require true end-to-end
Internet connectivity will not be able to rely on IPv4, the protocol most Internet services use today. They will
need a new enabling technology: IPv6.
IPv6 is a long-anticipated upgrade to the Internets original fundamental protocol the Internet Protocol (IP),
which supports all communications on the Internet. IPv6 is necessary because the Internet is running out of
original IPv4 addresses. While IPv4 can support 4.3 billion devices connected to the Internet, IPv6 with 2 to
th

the 128 power addresses, is for all practical purposes inexhaustible. This represents about 340 trillion,
trillion, trillion addresses, which more than satisfies the demand of the estimated 100 billion IoT devices
going into service in the coming decades.
Given the anticipated longevity of some of the sensors and other devices imagined for the Internet of Things,
design decisions will affect the utility of solutions decades from now. Key challenges for IoT developers are
that IPv6 is not natively interoperable with IPv4 and most low-cost software that is readily available for
embedding in IoT devices implements only IPv4. Many experts believe, however, that IPv6 is the best
connectivity option and will allow IoT to reach its potential.
For more information on IPv6 visit the Internet Society resource pages at
http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/internet-technology-matters/ipv6 and
http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/ipv6/

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

What issues are raised by the

Internet of Things?
It would be impossible to cover the broad scope of issues surrounding the Internet of Things in a single
paper. Below, however, we provide an overview of five topics frequently discussed in relation to IoT. These
include: security; privacy; interoperability and standards; legal, regulatory and rights; and emerging
economies and development.
We begin to examine these issues through the lens of the Abilities the statement of fundamental
principles that guide ISOCs work in terms of the capabilities we believe all Internet users should enjoy that
55

must be protected. These include the ability to connect, speak, innovate, share, choose, and trust.

With

these principles as a guide, we present important aspects of each issue and propose several questions for
discussion.

Security Issues
The IoT Security Challenge
As we note in the principles that guide our work, ensuring the security, reliability, resilience, and stability of
Internet applications and services is critical to promoting trust and use of the Internet.

As users of the

Internet, we need to have a high degree of trust that the Internet, its applications, and the devices linked to it
are secure enough to do the kinds of activities we want to do online in relation to the risk tolerance
associated with those activities. The Internet of Things is no different in this respect, and security in IoT is
fundamentally linked to the ability of users to trust their environment. If people dont believe their connected
devices and their information are reasonably secure from misuse or harm, the resulting erosion of trust
causes a reluctance to use the Internet. This has global consequences to electronic commerce, technical
innovation, free speech, and practically every other aspect of online activities. Indeed, ensuring security in
IoT products and services should be considered a top priority for the sector.
As we increasingly connect devices to the Internet, new opportunities to exploit potential security
vulnerabilities grow. Poorly secured IoT devices could serve as entry points for cyberattack by allowing
malicious individuals to re-program a device or cause it to malfunction. Poorly designed devices can expose
user data to theft by leaving data streams inadequately protected. Failing or malfunctioning devices also can
create security vulnerabilities. These problems are just as large or larger for the small, cheap, and
ubiquitous smart devices in the Internet of Things as they are for the computers that have traditionally been
55

"Values and Principles." Principles. Internet Society, 2015. http://www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/mission/values-and-principles

Ibid.

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the endpoints of Internet connectivity. Competitive cost and technical constraints on IoT devices challenge
manufacturers to adequately design security features into these devices, potentially creating security and
long-term maintainability vulnerabilities greater than their traditional computer counterparts.
Along with potential security design deficiencies, the sheer increase in the number and nature of IoT devices
could increase the opportunities of attack. When coupled with the highly interconnected nature of IoT
devices, every poorly secured device that is connected online potentially affects the security and resilience
of the Internet globally, not just locally. For example, an unprotected refrigerator or television in the US that
is infected with malware might send thousands of harmful spam emails to recipients worldwide using the
owners home Wi-Fi Internet connection.

To complicate matters, our ability to function in our daily activities without using devices or systems that are
Internet-enabled is likely to decrease in a hyperconnected world. In fact, it is increasingly difficult to purchase
some devices that are not Internet-connected because certain vendors only make connected products. Day
by day, we become more connected and dependent on IoT devices for essential services, and we need the
devices to be secure, while recognizing that no device can be absolutely secure. This increasing level of
dependence on IoT devices and the Internet services they interact with also increases the pathways for
wrongdoers to gain access to devices. Perhaps we could unplug our Internet-connected TVs if they get
compromised in a cyber attack, but we cant so easily turn off a smart utility power meter or a traffic control
system or a persons implanted pacemaker if they fall victim to malicious behavior.
This is why security of IoT devices and services is a major discussion point and should be considered a
critical issue. We increasingly depend on these devices for essential services, and their behavior may have
global reach and impact.

A Spectrum of Security Considerations

When thinking about Internet of Things devices, it is important to understand that security of these devices is
not absolute. IoT device security is not a binary proposition of secure or insecure. Instead, it is useful to
conceptualize IoT security as a spectrum of device vulnerability. The spectrum ranges from totally
unprotected devices with no security features to highly secure systems with multiple layers of security
features. In an endless cat-and-mouse game, new security threats evolve, and device manufacturers and
network operators continuously respond to address the new threats.
The overall security and resilience of the Internet of Things is a function of how security risks are assessed
and managed. Security of a device is a function of the risk that a device will be compromised, the damage
such compromise will cause, and the time and resources required to achieve a certain level of protection. If a
user cannot tolerate a high degree of security risk as in the case of the operator of a traffic control system or
person with an implanted, Internet-enabled medical device, then she may feel justified in spending a
considerable amount of resources to protect the system or device from attack. Likewise, if she is not
concerned that her refrigerator might be hacked and used to send spam messages, then she may not feel

Starr, Michelle. "Fridge Caught Sending Spam Emails in Botnet Attack - CNET." CNET, 19 Jan. 2014.
http://www.cnet.com/news/fridge-caught-sending-spam-emails-in-botnet-attack/

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

compelled to pay for a model that has a more sophisticated security design if it makes the device more
costly or complicated.
Several factors influence this risk assessment and mitigation calculation. Factors include having a clear
understanding of the present security risks and the potential future risks; the estimated economic and other
costs of harm if the risks are realized; and the estimated cost to mitigate the risks.

While these kinds of

security trade-offs are often made from an individual user or organizational perspective, it is also important to
consider the interrelatedness of IoT devices as part of a larger IoT ecosystem. The networked connectivity of
IoT devices means that security decisions made locally about an IoT device can have global impacts on
other devices.
As a matter of principle, developers of smart objects for the Internet of Things have an obligation in ensuring
that those devices do not expose either their own users or others to potential harm. As a matter of business
and economics, vendors have an interest in reducing their cost, complexity, and time to market. For
example, IoT devices that are highvolume, lowmargin components that already represent a cost added to
that of the product in which they are embedded are becoming quite common; adding more memory and a
faster processor to implement security measures could easily make that product commercially
uncompetitive.
In economic terms, lack of security for IoT devices results in a negative externality, where a cost is imposed
by one party (or parties) on other parties. A classic example is pollution of the environment, where the
environmental damage and cleanup costs (negative externalities) of a polluters actions are borne by other
parties. The issue is that the cost of the externality imposed on others is not normally factored into the
decision-making process, unless, as is the case with pollution, a tax is imposed on the polluter to convince
him to lower the amount of pollution. In the case of information security, as discussed by Bruce Schneier,

an externality arises when the vendor creating the product does not bear the costs caused by any insecurity;
in this case, liability law can influence vendors to account for the externality and develop more security
products.
These security considerations are not new in the context of information technology, but the scale of unique
challenges that can arise in IoT implementations, as described below, make them significant.

Unique Security Challenges of IoT Devices

IoT devices tend to differ from traditional computers and computing devices in important ways that challenge
security:

Many Internet of Things devices, such as sensors and consumer items, are designed to be deployed
at a massive scale that is orders of magnitude beyond that of traditional Internet-connected devices.

A number of organizations have developed guides for conducting risk assessment. For example, the U.S. National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) issued a set of guidelines in 2012, http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=912091 and the
International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has published the ISO/IEC
31010:2009 Risk management Risk assessment techniques document. http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=51073
59

See Bruce Schneiders online article at: https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2007/01/information_security_1.html

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As a result, the potential quantity of interconnected links between these devices is unprecedented.
Further, many of these devices will be able to establish links and communicate with other devices on
their own in an unpredictable and dynamic fashion. Therefore, existing tools, methods, and
strategies associated with IoT security may need new consideration.

Many IoT deployments will consist of collections of identical or near identical devices. This
homogeneity magnifies the potential impact of any single security vulnerability by the sheer number
of devices that all have the same characteristics. For example, a communication protocol
vulnerability of one companys brand of Internet-enabled light bulbs might extend to every make and
model of device that uses that same protocol or which shares key design or manufacturing
characteristics.

Many Internet of Things devices will be deployed with an anticipated service life many years longer
than is typically associated with high-tech equipment. Further, these devices might be deployed in
circumstances that make it difficult or impossible to reconfigure or upgrade them; or these devices
might outlive the company that created them, leaving orphaned devices with no means of long-term
support. These scenarios illustrate that security mechanisms that are adequate at deployment might
not be adequate for the full lifespan of the device as security threats evolve. As such, this may
create vulnerabilities that could persist for a long time. This is in contrast to the paradigm of
traditional computer systems that are normally upgraded with operating system software updates
throughout the life of the computer to address security threats. The long-term support and
management of IoT devices is a significant security challenge.

Many IoT devices are intentionally designed without any ability to be upgraded, or the upgrade
process is cumbersome or impractical. For example, consider the 2015 Fiat Chrysler recall of 1.4
million vehicles to fix a vulnerability that allowed an attacker to wirelessly hack into the vehicle.
These cars must be taken to a Fiat Chrysler dealer for a manual upgrade, or the owner must
perform the upgrade themselves with a USB key. The reality is that a high percentage of these autos
probably will not be upgraded because the upgrade process presents an inconvenience for owners,
leaving them perpetually vulnerable to cybersecurity threats, especially when the automobile
appears to be performing well otherwise.

Many IoT devices operate in a manner where the user has little or no real visibility into the internal
workings of the device or the precise data streams they produce. This creates a security
vulnerability when a user believes an IoT device is performing certain functions, when in reality it
might be performing unwanted functions or collecting more data than the user intends. The devices
functions also could change without notice when the manufacturer provides an update, leaving the
user vulnerable to whatever changes the manufacturer makes.

Some IoT devices are likely to be deployed in places where physical security is difficult or impossible
to achieve. Attackers may have direct physical access to IoT devices. Anti-tamper features and
other design innovations will need to be considered to ensure security.

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Some IoT devices, like many environmental sensors, are designed to be unobtrusively embedded in
the environment, where a user does not actively notice the device nor monitor its operating status.
Additionally, devices may have no clear way to alert the user when a security problem arises,
making it difficult for a user to know that a security breach of an IoT device has occurred. A security
breach might persist for a long time before being noticed and corrected if correction or mitigation is
even possible or practical. Similarly, the user might not be aware that a sensor exists in her
surroundings, potentially allowing a security breach to persist for long periods without detection.

Early models of Internet of Things assume IoT will be the product of large private and/or public
technology enterprises, but in the future Build Your own Internet of Things (BYIoT) might become
more commonplace as exemplified by the growing Arduino and Raspberry Pi

developer

communities. These may or may not apply industry best practice security standards.

IoT Security Questions

A number of questions have been raised regarding security challenges posed by Internet of Things devices.
Many of these questions existed prior to the growth of IoT, but they increase in importance due to the scale
of deployment of IoT devices. Some prominent questions include:
a) Good Design Practices. What are the sets of best practices for engineers and developers to use to
design IoT devices to make them more secure? How do lessons learned from Internet of Things
security problems get captured and conveyed to development communities to improve future
generations of devices? What training and educational resources are available to teach engineers
and developers more secure IoT design?
b) Cost vs. Security Trade-Offs. How do stakeholders make informed cost-benefit analysis decisions
with respect to Internet of Things devices? How do we accurately quantify and assess the security
risks? What will motivate device designers and manufacturers to accept additional product design
cost to make devices more secure, and, in particular, to take responsibility for the impact of any
negative externalities resulting from their security decisions? How will incompatibilities between
functionality and usability be reconciled with security? How do we ensure IoT security solutions
support opportunities for IoT innovation, social and economic growth?
c) Standards and Metrics. What is the role of technical and operational standards for the
development and deployment of secure, well-behaving IoT devices? How do we effectively identify
and measure characteristics of IoT device security? How do we measure the effectiveness of
Internet of Things security initiatives and countermeasures? How do we ensure security best
practices are implemented?
d) Data Confidentiality, Authentication and Access Control. What is the optimal role of data
encryption with respect to IoT devices? Is the use of strong encryption, authentication and access
control technologies in IoT devices an adequate solution to prevent eavesdropping and hijacking

See the Arduino open source community http://www.arduino.cc and the Raspberry Pi Foundation http://www.raspberrypi.org/

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attacks of the data streams these devices produce? Which encryption and authentication
technologies could be adapted for the Internet of Things, and how could they be implemented within
an IoT devices constraints on cost, size, and processing speed? What are the foreseeable
management issues that must be addressed as a result of IoT-scale cryptography? Are concerns
about managing the crypto-key lifecycle and the expected period during which any given algorithm is
expected to remain secure being addressed? Are the end-to-end processes adequately secure and
simple enough for typical consumers to use?
e) Field-Upgradeability. With an extended service life expected for many IoT devices, should devices
be designed for maintainability and upgradeability in the field to adapt to evolving security threats?
New software and parameter settings could be installed in a fielded IoT device by a centralized
security management system if each device had an integrated device management agent. But
management systems add cost and complexity; could other approaches to upgrading device
software be more compatible with widespread use of IoT devices? Are there any classes of IoT
devices that are low-risk and therefore dont warrant these kinds of features? In general, are the
user interfaces IoT devices expose (usually intentionally minimal) being properly scrutinized with
consideration for device management (by anyone, including the user)?
f)

Shared Responsibility. How can shared responsibility and collaboration for IoT security be
encouraged across stakeholders?

g) Regulation. Should device manufacturers be penalized for selling software or hardware with known
or unknown security flaws? How might product liability and consumer protection laws be adapted or
extended to cover any negative externalities related to the Internet of Things and would this operate
in a cross-border environment? Would it be possible for regulation to keep pace and be effective in
light of evolving IoT technology and evolving security threats? How should regulation be balanced
against the needs of permission-less innovation, Internet freedom, and freedom of expression?
h) Device Obsolescence. What is the right approach to take with obsolete IoT devices as the Internet
evolves and security threats change? Should IoT devices be required to have a built-in end-of-life
expiration feature that disables them? Such a requirement could force older, non-interoperable
devices out of service and replace them with more secure and interoperable devices in the future.
Certainly, this would be very challenging in the open marketplace. What are the implications of
automatic decommissioning IoT devices?
The breadth of these questions is representative of the wide-ranging security considerations associated with
Internet of Things devices. However, its important to remember that when a device is on the Internet, it is
also part of the Internet,

which means that effective and appropriate security solutions can be achieved
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only if the participants involved with these devices apply a Collaborative Security approach.

Kolkman, Olaf. "Introducing Collaborative Security, Our Approach to Internet Security Issues." Web log post. Internet Society, 13 Apr.
2015. http://www.internetsociety.org/blog/public-policy/2015/04/introducing-collaborative-security-our-approach-internet-security-issues
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Collaborative Security: An Approach to Tackling Internet Security Issues. Internet Society, Apr. 2015.
http://www.internetsociety.org/collaborativesecurity

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The collaborative model has emerged as an effective approach among industry, governments, and public
authorities to help secure the Internet and cyberspace, including the Internet of Things. This model includes
a range of practices and tools including bidirectional voluntary information sharing; effective enforcement
tools; incident preparedness and cyber exercises; awareness raising and training; agreement on
international norms of behavior; and development and recognition of international standards and practices.
Continued work is needed to evolve collaborative and shared risk management-based approaches that are
well suited to the scale and complexity of IoT device security challenges of the future.

Privacy Considerations
Internet of Things Privacy Background
Respect for privacy rights and expectations is integral to ensuring trust in the Internet, and it also impacts the
ability of individuals to speak, connect, and choose in meaningful ways. These rights and expectations are
sometimes framed in terms of ethical data handling, which emphasizes the importance of respecting an
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individuals expectations of privacy and the fair use of their data.

The Internet of Things can challenge

these traditional expectations of privacy.

IoT often refers to a large network of sensor-enabled devices designed to collect data about their
environment, which frequently includes data related to people. This data presumably provides a benefit to
the devices owner, but frequently to the devices manufacturer or supplier as well. IoT data collection and
use becomes a privacy consideration when the individuals who are observed by IoT devices have different
privacy expectations regarding the scope and use of that data than those of the data collector.
Seemingly benign combinations of IoT data streams also can jeopardize privacy. When individual data
streams are combined or correlated, often a more invasive digital portrait is painted of the individual than can
be realized from an individual IoT data stream. For example, a users Internet-enabled toothbrush might
capture and transmit innocuous data about a persons tooth-brushing habits. But if the users refrigerator
reports the inventory of the foods he eats and his fitness-tracking device reports his activity data, the
combination of these data streams paint a much more detailed and private description of the persons overall
health. This data-aggregation effect can be particularly potent with respect to IoT devices because many
produce additional metadata like time stamps and geolocation information, which adds even more specificity
about the user.
In other situations, the user might not be aware that an IoT device is collecting data about the individual and
potentially sharing it with third parties. This type of data collection is becoming more prevalent in consumer
devices like smart televisions and video game devices. These kinds of products have voice recognition or
vision features that continuously listen to conversations or watch for activity in a room and selectively
transmit that data to a cloud service for processing, which sometimes includes a third party. A person might
be in the presence of these kinds of devices without knowing their conversation or activities are being

Wilton, Robin. CREDS 2014 - Position Paper: Four Ethical Issues in Online Trust. Issue brief no. CREDS-PP-2.0. Internet Society,
2014. https://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/Ethical Data-handling - v2.0.pdf

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monitored and their data captured. These kinds of features may provide a benefit to an informed user, but
can pose a privacy problem for those who are unaware of the presence of the devices and have no
meaningful influence over how that collected information is used.
Independent of whether the user is aware of and consents to having their IoT data collected and analyzed,
these situations highlight the value of these personalized data streams to companies and organizations
seeking to collect and capitalize on IoT information. The demand for this information exposes the legal and
regulatory challenges facing data protection and privacy laws.
These kinds of privacy problems are critical to address because they have implications on our basic rights
and our collective ability to trust the Internet. From a broad perspective, people recognize their privacy is
intrinsically valuable, and they have expectations of what data can be collected about them and how other
parties can use that data. This general notion about privacy holds true for data collected by Internet of
Things devices, but those devices can undermine the users ability to express and enforce privacy
preferences. If users lose confidence in the Internet because their privacy preferences arent being
respected in the Internet of Things, then the greater value of the Internet may be diminished.

Unique Privacy Aspects of Internet of Things

Generally, privacy concerns are amplified by the way in which the Internet of Things expands the feasibility
and reach of surveillance and tracking. Characteristics of IoT devices and the ways they are used redefine
the debate about privacy issues, because they dramatically change how personal data is collected,
analyzed, used, and protected. For example:

The traditional notice and consent online privacy model, in which users assert their privacy preferences
by interacting directly with information presented on a computer or mobile screen (e.g. by clicking I
agree), breaks down when systems provide no mechanism for user interaction. IoT devices frequently
have no user interface to configure privacy preferences, and in many IoT configurations users have no
knowledge or control over the way in which their personal data is being collected and used. This causes
a gulf between the users privacy preferences and the data-collecting behavior of the IoT device. There
might be less incentive for IoT vendors to offer a mechanism for users to express their privacy
preferences if they regard the data collected as being non-personal data. However, experience shows
that data not traditionally considered personal data might actually be personal data or become personal
data when combined with other data.

Assuming an effective mechanism can be developed to enable a user to express informed consent of
their privacy preferences to IoT devices, that mechanism needs to handle the large number of IoT
devices a user must control. It is not realistic to think that a user will directly interact with each and every
IoT device they encounter throughout the day to express their privacy preferences. Instead, privacy
interface mechanisms need to be scalable to the size of the IoT problem, while still being comprehensive
and practical from a user perspective.

The Internet of Things can threaten a persons expectations of privacy in common situations. There are
social norms and expectations of privacy that differ in public spaces versus private spaces, and IoT

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devices challenge these norms. For example, IoT monitoring technologies like surveillance cameras or
location tracking systems that normally operate in public spaces are migrating into traditionally private
spaces like the home or personal vehicle in which our expectations of privacy are very different. In doing
so, they challenge what many societies recognize as the right to be left alone in ones home or private
space. Also individuals expectations of privacy in spaces they consider to be public (e.g. parks,
shopping malls, train stations) are being challenged by the increased nature and extent of monitoring in
those spaces.

IoT devices often operate in contexts in which proximity exposes multiple people to the same data
collection activity. For example, a geolocation tracking sensor in an automobile would record location
data about all occupants of the vehicle, whether or not all the occupants want their location tracked. It
may even track individuals in nearby vehicles. In these kinds of situations, it might be difficult or
impossible to distinguish, much less honor, individual privacy preferences.

Big data analytics applied to aggregated personal data already represents a substantial risk of privacy
invasion and potential discrimination. This risk is amplified in the Internet of Things by the scale and
greater intimacy of personal data collection. IoT devices can collect information about people with an
unprecedented degree of specificity and pervasiveness; aggregation and correlation of these data can
create detailed profiles of individuals that create the potential for discrimination and other harms. The
sophistication of this technology can create situations that expose the individual to physical, criminal,
financial or reputational harm.

The ubiquity, familiarity, and social embrace of many IoT devices might create a false sense of security
and encourage individuals to divulge sensitive or private information without full awareness or
appreciation of the potential consequences of doing so.

IoT Privacy Questions

These privacy issues would be challenging even if the interests and motivations of all of the participants in
the IoT ecosystem were well aligned. However, we know that there can be unbalanced or unfair
relationships and interests between those who are exposed to personal data collection and those who
aggregate, analyze, and use the data. The data source might see an unwelcome intrusion into private space,
often without consent, control, choice, or even awareness. The data collector, however, might consider this a
beneficial resource that can add value to products and services as well as provide new revenue streams.
Because IoT challenges our notions of privacy in new ways, key questions need to be asked when reevaluating online privacy models in the context of IoT. Some questions that have been raised include:
a) Fairness in Data Collection and Use. How do we resolve the marketplace relationship between
data sources and data collectors in the context of IoT? Personal data has personal and commercial
value that sources and collectors value differently, both individually and in aggregate; both parties
have legitimate interests that may conflict. How might those distinct interests be expressed in a way
that leads to fair and consistent rules for both sources and collectors concerning access, control,
transparency, and protection?

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b) Transparency, Expression, and Enforcement of Privacy Preferences. How can privacy policies
and practices be made readily available and understandable in the context of IoT? What are the
alternatives to the traditional notice and consent privacy model that will address the unique aspects
of the Internet of Things? What is an effective model for expressing, applying, and enforcing
individual privacy preferences and multi-party preferences? Could such a multi-party model be
constructed, and if so, what would it look like? How might it be applied to specific circumstances
involving individual privacy preferences? Is there a market for outsourcing the management of
privacy settings to commercial services designed to put users preferences into effect? Is there a
role for a privacy proxy that would express and enforce a users preferences across an array of
devices, while eliminating the need for direct interaction with each one?
c) Wide-Ranging Privacy Expectations. Privacy norms and expectations are closely related to the
social and cultural context of the user, which will vary from one group or nation to another. Many IoT
scenarios involve device deployments and data collection activities with multinational or global
scope that cross social and cultural boundaries. What will that mean for the development of a
broadly applicable privacy protection model for the Internet of Things? How can IoT devices and
systems be adapted to recognize and honor the range of privacy expectations of the users and
different laws?
d) Privacy by Design. How can we encourage IoT device manufacturers to integrate privacy-bydesign principles into their core values? How do we foster the inclusion of consumer privacy
considerations in every phase of product development and operation? How do we reconcile
functionality and privacy requirements? In principle, manufacturers should expect that privacyrespecting products and practices build long-term customer trust, satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Is
that a sufficiently compelling motivation, when matched against the competing desires for design
simplicity and speed to market? Should devices be designed with default settings configured for the
most conservative data collection mode (i.e. opt out of data collection by default)?
e) Identification. How should we protect data collected by IoT that appears not to be personal at the
point of collection or has been de-identified, but may at some point in the future become personal
data (e.g. because data can be re-identified or combined with other data)?
The Internet of Things creates unique challenges to privacy that go beyond the data privacy issues that
currently exist. Strategies need to be developed to respect individual privacy choices across a broad
spectrum of expectations, while still fostering innovation in new IoT technology.

Interoperability / Standards Issues

IoT Interoperability / Standards Background
In the traditional Internet, interoperability is the most basic core value; the first requirement of Internet
connectivity is that connected systems be able to talk the same language of protocols and encodings.

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Interoperability is so fundamental that the early workshops for Internet equipment vendors were called
Interops;

and it is the explicit goal of the entire Internet Standards apparatus centered on the Internet

Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Interoperability is also a cornerstone of the open Internet.

Barriers deliberately erected to obstruct the

exchange of information can deny Internet users the ability to connect, speak, share, and innovate, which
are four of ISOCs fundamental principles.

So-called walled gardens, in which users are permitted to

interoperate with only a curated subset of sites and services, can substantially diminish the social, political,
and economic benefits of access to the entire Internet.
In a fully interoperable environment, any IoT device would be able to connect to any other device or system
and exchange information as desired. In practicality, interoperability is more complex. Interoperability among
IoT devices and systems happens in varying degrees at different layers within the communications protocol
stack between the devices. Furthermore, full interoperability across every aspect of a technical product is not
always feasible, necessary, or desirable and, if artificially imposed (such as through government mandates),
could provide disincentives for investment and innovation. The standardization and adoption of protocols that
specify these communication details, including where it is optimal to have standards, are at the heart of the
interoperability discussion for IoT.
Beyond the technical aspects, interoperability has significant influence on the potential economic impact of
IoT. Well-functioning and well-defined device interoperability can encourage innovation and provide
efficiencies for IoT device manufacturers, increasing the overall economic value of the market. Furthermore,
the implementation of existing standards and development of new open standards where necessary help
lower barriers to entry, facilitate new business models, and build economies of scale.

A 2015 McKinsey Global Institute report states, [on] average, interoperability is necessary to create 40
percent of the potential value that can be generated by the Internet of Things in various settings.

The

report continues, Interoperability is required to unlock more than $4 trillion per year in potential economic
impact for IoT use in 2025, out of a total impact of $11.1 trillion across the nine settings that McKinsey
70

analyzed.

While some companies perceive competitive advantages and economic incentives in building

proprietary systems, overall economic opportunities may be constrained in a marketplace of silos.

"A History of the Internet: 1988." Web log post. Computer Information, 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 6 Sept. 2015.
http://inthistory4u.blogspot.com/2010/08/1988.html
65

See http://www.ietf.org

"Open Internet: What is it, and how to avoid mistaking it for something else," Internet Society 3 Sept. 2014.
https://www.internetsociety.org/doc/open-internet-what-it-and-how-avoid-mistaking-it-something-else
67

"Values and Principles." Principles. Internet Society, 2015. http://www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/mission/values-and-principles

The European Commission Rolling plan for ICT Standardisation 2015 section 3.5.6 Internet of Things has a discussion on IoT
standards from a competitiveness and policy perspective. See https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/rolling-plan-ict-standardisation
69

Manyika, James, et. al., The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value beyond the Hype. McKinsey Global Institute, June 2015. p. 2.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/the_internet_of_things_the_value_of_digitizing_the_physical_world
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Ibid. 4.

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Also, interoperability is fundamentally valuable from the perspective of both the individual consumer and
organizational user of these devices. It facilitates the ability to choose devices with the best features at the
best price and integrate them to make them work together. Purchasers may be hesitant to buy IoT products
and services if there is integration inflexibility, high ownership complexity, concern over vendor lock-in, or
fear of obsolescence due to changing standards.

Key Considerations and Challenges in IoT Interoperability / Standards

Interoperability, standards, protocols, and conventions are a primary issue in the early development and
adoption of IoT devices. While not exhaustive, a number of key considerations and challenges include:

Proprietary Ecosystems and Consumer Choice. Some device manufacturers see a market
advantage to creating a proprietary ecosystem of compatible IoT products, sometimes called walled
gardens, which limit interoperability to only those devices and components within the brand product
line. These manufacturers can create user lock-in to their particular device ecosystem by increasing
the switching cost for the consumer to change to a different brand in the future or substitute
components from another vendor. For example, in the home automation market, light bulbs from one
vendor may not be interoperable with a light switch or control system manufactured by another.
Interoperability supporters view these practices as an impediment to user choice because it deters
users from changing to alternative products. They also view this practice as a barrier to innovation
and competition because it limits the ability of competitors to create new products based on the
ecosystems foundational infrastructure. Some device manufacturers, however, see a closed
ecosystem approach as a benefit to users by providing a protocol that can be adapted more quickly
and easily when technical or market demands require change.
Interoperability considerations also extend to the data collected and processed by IoT services. One
of the primary attractions of connected devices is the ability to transmit and receive data to services
in the cloud, which in turn provide valuable information or services based upon that data. While this
is extremely useful, it also can present challenges for a user who wants to move to a competing
service. Even if access to the data generated by devices is made available to users, obtaining the
data will be useless if the data is in a proprietary format. Only if the source data is freely available to
the originating user, in an open standard format, will users be free to move to another service
provider, or to perform analyses on their own.

Technical and Cost Constraints. As manufacturers develop IoT devices, there are inherent
technical, time to market, and cost constraints that factor into device interoperability and design.
Some devices are constrained by technical factors like limited internal processing resources,
memory, or power consumption demands. Similarly, manufacturers are under pressure to reduce
the unit cost of the device by minimizing part and product design costs. Manufacturers make costbenefit analyses to decide whether the additional costs and potentially reduced product performance
is worth the extra benefits of implementing standards. In the short-term, it can be more costly to
design interoperability features into a product and test for compliance with a standards specification.
In some contexts, the cheapest path to market may be to use proprietary protocols and systems.

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This needs to be compared, however, against the long-term product lifecycle gains afforded by
interoperability.

Schedule Risk. In a globally competitive market, there is often a first-mover advantage to bringing a
product to market quickly and establishing market share, and this certainly applies to IoT device
manufacturers. A problem arises for IoT device interoperability when the device manufacturers
product design schedule outpaces the availability of interoperability standards. An IoT device
manufacturer that is eager to bring a product to market may view lack of certainty in standards
development schedules and processes as business risk to be minimized or avoided. This can make
design alternatives to open interoperability standards more attractive, particularly in the short term.

Technical Risk. When an IoT device manufacturer or user is planning the development of a product,
they need to assess technical design risks of protocols in the development process. Incorporating
existing and proven standards into product or system designs can represent a lower technical risk
compared to the development and use of proprietary protocols. The use of generic, open and widely
available standards (such as the Internet Protocol suite) as building blocks for devices and services
can bring other benefits, such as access to larger pools of technical talent, developed software, and
cheaper development costs. These factors are discussed in Internet Architecture Board (IAB) RFC
7452, Architectural Considerations in Smart Object Networking.

Devices Behaving Badly. Lack of standards and documented best practices have a greater impact
than just limiting the potential of IoT devices. In a passive way, absence of these standards can
enable bad behavior by IoT devices. In other words, without standards to guide manufacturers,
developers of these devices sometimes design products that operate in disruptive ways on the
Internet without much regard to their impact. These devices are worse than simply not being
interoperable. If poorly designed and configured, they may have negative consequences for the
networking resources they connect to and the broader Internet.
In an essay, Internet expert Geoff Huston describes the proliferation of such devices as the Internet
72

of stupid things.

Huston describes an example of a consumer-grade cable modem produced by

one manufacturer that hard-coded the IP address of the network time protocol (NTP) server
operated by the University of Wisconsin into the product, which is a breach of commonly accepted
design practices. As Huston explains, The more units that were sold, the greater the aggregate
traffic volume that was sent to the universitys server.

Not only were these devices behaving badly

by funneling all of the NTP requests to a single server, but the vendors poor design compounded
the difficulty because it provided no effective mechanism to fix the problem.
There is an opportunity for the deployment of IoT standards and best practices to significantly
diminish this class of problems over time

Huston, Geoff. "The Internet of Stupid Things." APNIC Labs., 28 Apr. 2015. https://labs.apnic.net/?p=620

Ibid.

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Legacy Systems. Interoperability standardization is a challenge for new IoT devices that need to
interface with systems already deployed and operating. This is relevant to many industry-specific
74

and application-specific environments that have established networks of devices.

IoT engineers

are faced with design trade-offs to maintain compatibility with legacy systems while still trying to
achieve greater interoperability with other devices through the use of standards.

Configuration. Users will face increasing challenges in managing larger numbers of IoT devices.
One such challenge is the need to quickly and easily modify the configuration settings of many IoT
devices on a network. When facing the daunting prospect of configuring hundreds of individual
devices, it will be essential to have thoughtful design and standardization of configuration tools,
methods, and interfaces.

Proliferation of Standards Efforts. Many new industry coalitions have emerged alongside
traditional Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) to increase efforts to assess, develop,
modify, or harmonize standards and protocols related to IoT. This includes, for example, longstanding SDOs such as the IETF, ITU, and IEEE, and comparatively new efforts such as the
Industrial Internet Consortium, Open Interconnection Consortium, ZigBee Alliance, and AllSeen
Alliance, among many others.

The time and investment required by industry and other stakeholders to participate in the wide range
of standardization efforts will likely be costly. Further, there is likely to be overlap and even
conflicting standardization strategies between some efforts.

In addition to increasing the costs of

standards development, the absence of coordination across efforts could ultimately produce
conflicting protocols, delay product deployment, and lead to fragmentation across IoT products,
services, and industry verticals.

Interoperability Questions
Interoperability and standards pose challenges and questions for the future of IoT devices, including:
a) In what areas are interoperability standards most needed and desirable? Are these sufficiently
similar or different across the wide range of potential IoT applications and use cases (such as
consumer goods, industrial applications and medical appliances)? What are the generic and
widely available standards (such as the Internet Protocol suite) that could be used as building
blocks for IoT devices and services? How would a lack of interoperability impact users ability to
connect, speak, share, and innovate?

Examples of legacy system protocols include: SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), a protocol used for
communication of industrial devices; CAN Bus (Control Area Network) protocols for vehicle and industrial sensors.
75

Vint Cerf, personal communications, 9 September 2015.

See section For More Information at the end of this paper for a list of standards bodies, consortiums, and alliances working on IoT
standards issues.
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Lawson, Stephen. Why Internet of Things Standards Got More Confusing in 2014. PCWorld, December 24, 2014.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2863572/iot-groups-are-like-an-orchestra-tuning-up-the-music-starts-in-2016.html

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b) What are the optimal roles of Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs), industry consortia,
and stakeholder groups in IoT standards development? What is the potential for bringing
together the wide range of groups working on IoT technical implementations for broader
discussions about interoperability and standards implementation? Can competing standards,
duplication, and conflicts stemming from SDOs and consortia tackling similar or overlapping
issues be avoided without adding undue coordination overhead? More practically, how can
industry players and other interested parties keep track of all of the activities happening in this
broad space?
c) What is the best approach to educate and engage user and developer communities about the
problems of badly behaving IoT devices and lack of standards implementation? What types of
best practices or implementation reference models would be effective, given the broad range of
IoT applications and use cases?
d) How will the Internet of Things impact the consumption of bandwidth and other resources and to
what extent will standards need to be modified to support those evolving needs? Given the
importance of cloud-enabled services to the Internet of Things, what are the challenges related
to cloud-to-cloud interoperability?
Overall, the importance of IoT interoperability and standards to the market and consumers is undeniable.
Ultimately, the challenge of developing and employing interoperability standards is central to the discussion
of innovation, competition, and user choice of services, which are embedded in ISOCs core principles.

Regulatory, Legal, and Rights Issues

The application of IoT devices poses a wide range of challenges and questions from a regulatory and legal
perspective, which need thoughtful consideration. In some cases, IoT devices create new legal and
regulatory situations and concerns over civil rights that didnt exist prior to these devices. In other cases,
these devices amplify legal issues that already existed. Further, technology is advancing much more rapidly
than the associated policy and regulatory environments. Several potential regulatory and legal issues that
affect the full spectrum of IoT applications are discussed below.

Data Protection and Crossborder Data Flows

Data collected by IoT devices may not be constrained from being sent across jurisdictional boundaries.
These devices use the Internet to communicate, and the Internet spans jurisdictional boundaries at all levels.
IoT devices can collect data about people in one jurisdiction and transmit that data to another jurisdiction for
data storage or processing, often with few or no technical roadblocks. This can quickly become a legal
problem, for example, if the data collected is deemed to be personal or sensitive data and subject to data
protection laws in multiple jurisdictions. To further complicate matters, the data protection laws in the
jurisdiction where the device and data subject reside might be inconsistent or incompatible with the laws in
the jurisdiction where the data is stored and processed.

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These situations are described as crossborder or transborder data flows, and they raise questions about the
legal scope of regulations that might be applicable. In other words, which legal regime governs the device
collecting the data, and which governs the storage and use of the collected data? This scenario also raises
normative questions. Can these laws be modified to reduce the degree of Internet fragmentation they cause
while still protecting the rights of users? Should a jurisdiction with more-restrictive data protection laws for
handling and transmission of certain IoT-enabled data be able to project those legal requirements onto other
jurisdictions?
While many of these crossborder data flow questions have been raised and addressed in the context of
traditional Internet data traffic,

IoT devices pose a new challenge in this regard. Increasingly, these devices

will be able to automatically connect to other devices and systems and transmit information across borders
without the knowledge of the user. This could create situations where a user becomes liable for crossborder
data flow requirements, and he is unaware that the activity is happening. These are complex issues, and
only growing more so, as technology continues to outpace policy.

IoT Data Discrimination

The data collected by IoT devices can paint a detailed portrait about the people interacting with them, and
this data can be used for both beneficial and discriminatory purposes. Consider the case of personal fitness
tracking devices. Frequently, a person wears a fitness tracker continuously over a span of days or weeks,
and it collects finely detailed information about the persons movements and other biometric data. This data
is analyzed by a software application to determine a persons level of fitness, estimate calories burned, track
hours slept, and characterize the quality of sleep. This analysis is clearly beneficial for the user as a way to
quantify their activity when they are trying to reach a weight-loss or fitness goal.
But this same data can be used in potentially discriminatory ways. Some health insurance plans in the
United States are incentivizing participants to provide the insurer with access to this fitness tracker data in
return for lower insurance premiums.

This can be viewed as a positive situation, by giving preferential

pricing to those people who are willing to give up their biometric data in return for a discount. On the other
hand, this may have the potential to be discriminatory, especially for those who are economically
disadvantaged. As one commentator writes:
Imagine [an insurance] pricing scheme that would punish sleep-deprived single parents or the
dietary habits of the working poor. And the financial incentives for giving insurers and others access
to your health data might become so compelling that choosing to participate becomes the only
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viable choice.

Typically, cross border data flows are addressed in regional and international privacy frameworks (e.g. OECD Privacy Guidelines,
Council of Europe Convention 108, APEC Privacy Framework) and special arrangements (e.g. APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules
system, EU Binding Corporate Rules). But, this is a patchwork approach, not a globally applicable solution.
79

Big Doctor Is Watching. Slate, 27 Feb. 2015.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/02/how_data_from_fitness_trackers_medical_devices_could_affect_health_
insurance.html
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Ibid.

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Similar scenarios are becoming more prevalent. Newer vehicles are equipped with GPS-enabled
transponders and data links, which communicate location and data indicative of driving habits (e.g. speeding
and hard braking) to remote systems, or are used to provide driver assistance or enhanced travel services.
While these features provide benefits to the user, the data can be used in potentially discriminatory ways.
For example, fleet operators can use this data to pervasively monitor the performance of its drivers without
an option for those drivers to opt out of being observed. These are relatively straightforward examples of
ways IoT data can be used in discriminatory ways, but it is unclear how different combinations of IoT data
might be used to discriminate in the future.
Further, the potential for discriminatory pricing practices or unfair services practices may be amplified by the
quality, specificity, and volume of IoT-produced data about users. IoT data can often be tagged with
metadata like date and timestamps and geolocation tags, which dramatically increase the quality of the data
for analytical purposes. Additionally, IoT sensors are usually narrow in the functions they perform. This
means that the sensor data is frequently associated with a specific operational situation, which affords a high
degree of specificity when correlating the data with a person or set of people. In fact, the device might be
uniquely identified with a specific person because it is implanted within that person, as in the case of an
Internet-enabled pacemaker or insulin pump. In other scenarios, this level of specificity is undesirable and
can cause unintended discriminatory results. IoT sensors owned or operated by third parties can collect
identifiable data about people without their knowledge or consent. This data could be used in ways that are
detrimental to the person being monitored.
Lastly, these devices provide large streams of continuous data without human intervention. The combination
of these data qualities makes analysis of IoT data very descriptive and useful for research, product
development, and other areas. Big data algorithms can examine massive quantities of IoT data and look for
statistical and semantic correlations to determine groupings or clusters of related characteristics among
users. But at the same time, these algorithms are susceptible to unfairly categorizing users and exploiting
their characteristics.
Using IoT data in this fashion raises practical, legal, and regulatory issues. First, how are discriminatory or
unfair practices against users detected? Are there discriminatory practices that are practically impossible to
detect? Are there any legal differences if the discrimination decision is made by a person or by a machine?
It is a challenging area of academic research to develop tools to detect unfair algorithmic practices,
especially since most data analytics algorithms are company secrets and not in the public domain. How do
we balance the tremendous commercial and societal benefits of IoT data analytics against the likelihood of
discriminatory practices against users? How do we encourage the principles of permissionless innovation in
the IoT domain while protecting users from unfair practices? How do we improve transparency? Are existing
privacy and consumer protection laws sufficient to address this scenario? What remedies should be
available in the event of discrimination? Should IoT devices be categorized and regulated based on the
nature of the data they produce, especially when that data is prone to misuse?

IoT Devices as Aids to Law Enforcement and Public Safety

IoT devices offer potential benefits to law enforcement and public safety, but the legal and societal
ramifications need to be carefully considered. Clearly, IoT devices and the data they generate can be used

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as effective tools to fight crime. Surveillance cameras have been deployed inside retail establishments to
collect video footage and track shopper activity, which has proven valuable as evidence in criminal
prosecution and as a deterrent to crime.

More recently, On-Star Corporation, a subsidiary of General

Motors, can provide in-car sensor data to police to aid in recovering stolen cars and can remotely disable a
stolen vehicle.

The Nassau County Police Department in New York uses a network of deployed sound

sensors called ShotSpotter, which can detect and pinpoint the exact source of gunfire in neighborhoods in
which it is deployed.

These are all examples of the benefits that the Internet of Things technology can offer

to law enforcement to fight crime and improve public safety.

However, the deployment and use of these kinds of IoT technologies cause concern among some civil rights
advocates and others. Potential causes of concern include the pervasiveness of the data monitoring
activities, the data retention and destruction policies, and the secondary uses of the data by government
officials, as well as the potential inadvertent exposure of that data to bad actors. Additionally, the potentially
adverse impact on socially beneficial activity arising from communities or societies that are monitored needs
to be carefully considered.
Other law enforcement and public safety situations are less straightforward. For example, in the product
release of the iPhone 6 smartphone and its iOS 8 operating system, Apple Corporation removed a
backdoor access method that existed on previous iPhone versions. The backdoor feature enabled police
officials to gain access to the data on a users phone for law enforcement purposes. Apple removed this
feature in the new iPhone, and it now encrypts the internal contents of the phone in a way that is not easily
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defeated, and for which Apple does not hold the keys and thus cannot enable access.

This prohibits

access to the content on the phone by anyone other than the owner. Federal law enforcement officials claim
this hinders prosecution of criminal behavior,
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protecting the privacy of user data.

while civil liberty supporters view this as a victory for

This device encryption controversy applies to other IoT devices as well.

What is the appropriate role of device encryption to protect an IoT device from criminal attacks versus
legitimate access to user data inside a device for law enforcement and public safety interests?

Goforth Gregory, Jennifer. 5 Ways Tech Is Stopping Theft. Entrepreneur, November 7, 2013.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229674
82

Bond, Jr., Vince. "Lawyers Reaching for In-car Data." Automotive News, 14 Sept. 2014.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20140914/OEM11/309159952/lawyers-reaching-for-in-car-data
83

Weis, Todd R. "Cool Cop Tech: 5 New Technologies Helping Police Fight Crime." Computerworld. N.p., 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 03 Aug.
2015. http://www.computerworld.com/article/2501178/government-it/cool-cop-tech--5-new-technologies-helping-police-fightcrime.html?page=2
84

Timm, Trevor. "Your IPhone Is Now Encrypted. The FBI Says It'll Help Kidnappers. Who Do You Believe?" The Guardian, 30 Sept.
2014. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/30/iphone-6-encrypted-phone-data-default
85

Ibid.

Timberg, Craig. "Apple Will No Longer Unlock Most IPhones, IPads for Police, Even with Search Warrants." Washington Post. The
Washington Post, 18 Sept. 2014. http://wapo.st/XGGwDi

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IoT Device Liability

IoT devices pose thought-provoking legal liability questions that need consideration. A fundamental
underlying question with respect to IoT devices is: If someone is harmed as a result of an IoT devices
action or inaction, who is responsible? The answer is frequently complicated, and in many instances there is
not yet much case law to support a particular position. IoT devices operate in a more complex way than a
simple stand-alone product, which suggest more complex liability scenarios need to be considered. For
example:

IoT devices are likely to be used in ways never anticipated by the manufacturer. An IoT device
manufacturer cannot reasonably perform product assurance testing on all possible use cases of IoT
devices.

There is the potential for IoT devices to connect and interact with other IoT devices in untested and
unforeseen ways. As interoperability of these devices increases, they may be able to form ad hoc
network connections among themselves. Therefore, it is difficult for a manufacturer or user to
account for all potentially harmful scenarios in advance of deploying these devices.

These devices can have long service lives in the field and are susceptible to future security threats
that are presently unknown. Accordingly, these devices might become compromised and maliciously
reprogrammed to damage themselves or other devices, or to reveal sensitive information in
unintended and unnoticed ways.

IoT devices will be integrated into autonomous systems like driverless cars, which incorporate
adaptive machine-learning algorithms to control their behavior based on sensor inputs from IoT
devices. The actions of these systems cannot be fully known and tested in advance.

These scenarios and others raise questions. If harm results from one of these scenarios, do existing liability
laws adequately address legal culpability and clarify the liability exposure of parties involved? Do liability
laws need reconsideration for intelligent IoT devices that learn from their environment and modify
themselves over time? If autonomous systems are instructed by the end user rather than by their internal
algorithms, what happens in cases of user error? Should IoT devices be smart enough to have a do what I
meant instruction? To what extent will current liability laws for conventional products extend to products that
become Internet-enabled? What can we as a community do to better inform legislators and policy makers,
so that they are not as susceptible to the vast amounts of misinformation and biased advice they are
receiving? And, what can we do to better inform the users and buyers of these devices, so that they
understand all of the factors affecting their use?

Proliferation of IoT Devices Used in Legal Actions

Data collected by IoT devices can often serve as evidence in a variety of legal proceedings, and as IoT data
becomes more prevalent, it is likely to be used increasingly in legal actions. For example, lawyers in the
United States have used time and location data enabled by electronic highway toll devices in automobiles to

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catch cheating spouses in divorce proceedings.

And in 2014, a Canadian woman used her own personal

fitness tracker data to substantiate her claim in a personal injury lawsuit.

In more deliberate uses of IoT devices in legal actions, Internet-enabled devices can be installed in
automobiles to act as payment assurance devices for those who default on payment obligations. If the driver
doesnt make their lease or car loan payment, the lease agent or lender can disable the vehicle remotely via
the installed device until payment is made.

These IoT devices have been installed in more than two million

cars in the US.

These kinds of scenarios raise new legal and regulatory questions about IoT devices. Should device
manufacturers include technologies like data encryption in these devices to restrict access to data streams in
a fashion analogous to the Apple iPhone? Conversely, should device manufacturers be designing IoT
devices that facilitate the demand for use data in legal proceedings? Are standards needed to specify design
requirements for IoT data to support legal chain of custody of data in legal proceedings? Should there be
consumer protection regulations placed on certain IoT devices?

Regulatory, Legal, and Rights Issues Summary

The range of legal, regulatory and rights issues associated with the Internet of Things is broad. IoT devices
create new legal and policy challenges that didnt previously exist, and they amplify many challenges that
already exist. For example, accessibility requirements for IoT devices for those with disabilities offer new
challenges arising from the introduction of new kinds of IoT devices, while remaining compatible with existing
accessibility standards and guidelines.

On the other hand, the enormous scale of wireless IoT devices and

the radio frequency (RF) noise and interference they produce is an example of the way IoT devices amplify
the existing difficulty of regulating the use of the RF spectrum.

Legal and regulatory concerns of intellectual

property issues, environmental issues (e.g. disposal of devices), and legal ownership of devices (e.g. will
devices be owned or rented) are emerging challenges as well for IoT devices.
Along with the complexities of deciding the appropriate regulatory or policy strategies for IoT problems, there
is the added complexity of deciding where in an IoT system architecture is the best place to achieve the
desired outcomes. Should the regulatory controls be placed on the device, on the flow of the data, on the
87

Newmarker, Chris. "E-ZPass Records out Cheaters in Divorce Court." Msnbc.com. NBC News.com, 10 Aug. 2007.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20216302/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/e-zpass-records-out-cheaters-divorce-court/ .Vbp9KnjfbFI
88

Olson, Parmy. "Fitbit Data Now Being Used In The Courtroom." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Nov. 2014.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/11/16/fitbit-data-court-room-personal-injury-claim/
89

Picchi, Aimee. Why the Repo Man Can Remotely Shut off Your Car Engine. CBS News, September 25, 2014.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-the-repo-man-can-remotely-shut-off-your-car-engine/
90

Corkery, Michael, and Jessica Silver-Greenberg. Miss a Payment? Good Luck Moving That Car. New York Times, September 24,
2014. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/miss-a-payment-good-luck-moving-that-car/
91

Various public sector procurement rules provide a baseline for accessibility requirements for information and communication
technology (ICT) products, which should be considered in the context of IoT device compatibility. Examples include the United States
Access Board Section 508 Standards and the European Standard EN 301 549 V1.1.1.
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McHenry, Mark A., Dennis Roberson, and Robert J. Matheson. Electronic Noise Is Drowning Out the Internet of Things. IEEE
Spectrum, no. September 2015 (August 18, 2015). http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/electronic-noise-is-drowning-out-theinternet-of-things

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gateway, on the user, or in the cloud where data is stored? The answers to these questions and others
depend on the perspective taken to analyze the situation. Regulatory analysis of IoT devices is increasingly
viewed from a general, technology-neutral perspective legal lens, such as consumer protection laws and
93

regulations.

Assessing legal implications of IoT devices from the perspective of preventing unfair or

deceptive practices against consumers

can help inform decisions of privacy and security among others.

Lastly, the resolution of challenges in this space, and their impacts, need to be considered with respect to
the guiding Internet Society principles that promote the ability to connect, speak, innovate, share, choose,
and trust.

Emerging Economy and Development Issues

Ensuring IoT Opportunities are Global
The spread and impact of the Internet is global in nature, providing opportunity and benefits to developed
and developing regions alike. At the same time, there are often unique challenges in developing regions
related to the deployment, growth, implementation, and use of technology, including the Internet. It is
reasonable to expect the same to be true for the potential benefits and challenges associated with the
Internet of Things.
From an Internet Society principle perspective, we believe that the Internet should be a source of
empowerment globally, regardless of a users location, region, or state of economic development, and that
the full range of abilities and principles

that drive our work and the success of the Internet apply globally.

From early in the history of the Internet, the Internet technical community, civil society, governmental
organizations, and private industry, among others, have focused on the opportunities and challenges related
to the Internet in emerging economies. So this also should be true regarding opportunities and challenges
related to the Internet of Things.

Economic and Development Opportunities

In terms of opportunity, McKinsey Global Institute notes that IoT technology has significant potential in
developing economies. By 2025, they project that as much as 38% of annual economic impact of IoT

Botterman, Maarten. Policy Paper on IoT Future Technologies: Opening towards a New Reality. Issue brief no. D5.2. 39.
http://www.smart-action.eu/fileadmin/smart-action/publications/Policy_Paper_on_IoT_Future_Technologies.pdf
94

US Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S. Code 45(a).

The Internet Governance Forums Dynamic Coalition on the Internet of Things (DC IoT) has proposed an ethical approach for
framing solutions to IoT challenges. See for example: http://www.iot-dynamic-coalition.org/intersessional-meetings/dresden-meeting2015/ and http://review.intgovforum.org/igf-2015/dynamic-coalitions/dynamic-coalition-on-the-internet-of-things-dc-iot-4/
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"Values and Principles." Principles. Internet Society, 2015. http://www.internetsociety.org/who-we-are/mission/values-and-principles

Ibid.

The Internet Governance Forum Dynamic Coalition on the Internet of Things (DC IoT) has been particularly active in considering the
impact and challenges of IoT in emerging and developing economies. See the DC IoT website at http://www.iot-dynamic-coalition.org/
for related discussions.

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applications will derive from less developed regions.

From an economic perspective, it is expected that

both demographics and marketplace trends will drive opportunity. For example, developing countries have a
high potential number of IoT users (particularly in China), global economic growth is shifting to developing
economies, and industrial IoT applications (such as in factories, worksites, and transportation) are expected
to drive economic value creation.

100

Should expectations regarding innovation and application of the technology be realized, IoT implementations
could hold considerable promise as fundamental enablers of social development, including the achievement
of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

101

The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs,

are a set of 17 goals framing over 100 development targets aimed at guiding efforts to achieve dignity, wellbeing, and equality for all the worlds people -- especially the poor and underserved. They cover the vast
range of fundamental development challenges, including sustainable agriculture, energy, water availability,
industrialization, and management of terrestrial and maritime resources, among others.
In considering the potential for smart object and Internet of Things technology to meaningfully address
development challenges, the opportunities appear compelling. For example, the application of sensor
networks to environmental challenges, including water quality and use, sanitation, disease, and health,
climate change, and natural resource monitoring, could have significant impact beyond resource
management. The data derived from such applications also could be used in research contexts, assisting
local scientists and universities in making unique contributions to the broader body of global scientific
knowledge and providing an incentive for local academic talent to stay in country to conduct research.
The growing world population, particularly in emerging economies, and challenges associated with providing
access to quality, safe, and affordable food are set to grow over time. The potential use of IoT to combat
hunger and promote sustainable agricultural has received particular attention, perhaps more than any other
development issue.

102

From managing agricultural production cycles, disease threats, and growing inputs

through to automated harvesting, distribution logistics, and quality monitoring, IoT-enabled smart
agriculture techniques are envisioned across the entire value chain to improve the sustainability and
productivity of the food supply.

103,104

Manyika, James, et. al., The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value beyond the Hype. McKinsey Global Institute, June 2015. p. 4.
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/the_internet_of_things_the_value_of_digitizing_the_physical_world
100

Manyika, James, et. al., p. 4-5.

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The list of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and targets is available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics.

102

Members of the Internet Society have formed a Special Interest Group (SIG) to specifically investigate issues at the intersection of
the Internet, IoT, and the food sector. More information on the ISOC Internet of Food SIG can be found at http://internet-of-food.org/
103

Botterman, Maarten. Policy Paper on IoT Future Technologies: Opening towards a New Reality. Issue brief no. D5.2.
http://www.smart-action.eu/fileadmin/smart-action/publications/Policy_Paper_on_IoT_Future_Technologies.pdf
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Digital Farm Set for Internets next Wave. The Guardian, September 20, 2015, sec. connecting the future.
http://www.theguardian.com/connecting-the-future/2015/sep/21/digital-farm-set-for-internets-next-wave

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Harnessing IoT for Global Development

Across the globe, the Internet of Things (IoT) is being deployed to solve some of the most pressing issues in
global development. From poverty alleviation to improving sustainable water and sanitation management,
connected technologies are being used to improve service delivery and development outcomes.
Driven by the declining cost of sensors and microprocessors, coupled with a growing array of affordable
connectivity technologies, the IoT represents the next frontier in the role of information and communications
technologies (ICTs) in development (ICT4D). While over 90% of the global population is covered by mobile
cellular networks, with two-thirds covered by 3G signals providing robust data communications, a variety of
other short- and long-range technologies also provide a wide range of options for data connectivity. As
affordability in devices and service continues to increase, IoT interventions in development (IoT4D) will
spread. Already today, for example, when equipped with sensors that monitor temperature and location, cold
chains specifically those that facilitate the transportation and distribution of essential vaccines are more
secured and efficient, with a larger percentage of shipments making it to intended destinations without
spoiling. In east Africa, village hand pumps are being deployed equipped with water flow sensors with 2G
SMS modules that can inform local municipalities, government offices and donor communities on the rate of
water usage and resulting in decreased downtime of malfunctioning pumps.
The agricultural sector has benefitted from IoT as well. More targeted feeding and monitoring of livestock is
possible via name/number tags containing information on a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip.
Electrochemical sensors embedded in soil can measure sunlight exposure, as well as levels of water
saturation and presence of key nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. Additionally, low income families
living in remote areas, as well as urban areas without access to the formal electrical grid, are using IoT
technologies coupled with off-grid solar cells to power their homes with electricity. The upfront capital costs
of the solar units are amortized and paid through mobile money services, with the solar cells communicating
battery level and usage on a regular basis via data communications.
These and many other examples highlight the IoTs impact as a tool for achieving the United Nations
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
However, challenges remain, particularly with regard to infrastructure, technical capacity and fostering
regulatory environments that are welcoming of IoT interventions. Greater attention to the potential of IoT4D
will help increase its impact and efficacy in tackling some of the most pressing development challenges of
our time.
Source: Harnessing the Internet of Things for Global Development by Cisco and the ITU/UNESCO
Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (forthcoming).

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IoT Emerging Economy and Development Questions

To ensure that the opportunities and benefits related to IoT are global, the specific needs and potential
challenges related to emerging economies must be considered. The matters discussed in the preceding
issue sections are not unique to industrialized countries, and should be considered applicable to developing
markets as well. However, the unique circumstances often found in emerging economies raise additional
questions about maximizing the benefits and managing challenges of IoT. While by no means exhaustive,
some areas for consideration include:
a) Infrastructure Resources: Internet and communications infrastructure has spread rapidly across
the developing world, yet gaps remain in ensuring reliable, high-speed, and affordable access in
many countries, including for commercial and business use. To what extent will the Internet of
Things place pressure on Internet and telecommunications infrastructure and resources? Will
current challenges curb the opportunity for IoT in emerging regions, or could IoT be a demand-driver
for additional build-out of infrastructure? Does special attention need to be paid to spectrum
management, given that wireless technology underpins many IoT implementations? As cloud
services and related data analysis drive value in many IoT services, will the relative lack of data
center infrastructure in emerging economies hinder deployment?
b) Investment: In industrialized countries, investment in IoT research and product development is
being driven by market opportunities for products and services. To what extent will the market drive
investment in IoT implementations in developing countries, especially beyond applications in
industries and settings that have the prospect of clear, near-term returns? On the other hand, could
IoT deployments in emerging economies be more efficient and cost effective, and even leap-frog
technology in the rest other world, as fewer legacy systems are often in place? Is there a role for
governments to incentivize the development of innovative technical solutions by local researchers
and local industries?
c) Technical and Industry Development: To what extent are researchers and entrepreneurs from
developing countries involved in IoT technical development and deployment? What should be done
to encourage participation in development of technical solutions and applications that meet the
needs and opportunities of these markets, while being respectful of cultural norms, and building in
appropriate levels of security and privacy protection? What new skills may be required in emerging
economies to build, deploy, and manage IoT systems? Are industries in emerging economies ready
to benefit from IoT technology? Will they be left behind or are they better positioned to leap-frog
older industrial technologies? How can researchers and industries in countries with emerging
economies be positioned to develop solutions to local economic and social challenges that have
direct impact on their societies?
d) Policy and Regulatory Coordination: Policymakers and regulators in emerging economies have
made significant progress over the past 10 years to develop and adapt policies and regulations to
encourage Internet growth and address related challenges. The demands on technology
policymakers in emerging economies are steep, particularly in light of rapid developments and

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resource constraints. While IoT promises new opportunities, it also will add a new dimension of
complexity. What information and resources do policymakers in emerging economies need now to
plan for policy demands and questions that will arise with the growth of IoT?

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Conclusion
While the concept of combining computers, sensors, and networks to monitor and control devices has been
around for decades, the recent confluence of key technologies and market trends is ushering in a new reality
for the Internet of Things. IoT promises to usher in a revolutionary, fully interconnected smart world, with
relationships between objects and their environment and objects and people becoming more tightly
intertwined. The prospect of the Internet of Things as a ubiquitous array of devices bound to the Internet
might fundamentally change how people think about what it means to be online.
While the potential ramifications are significant, a number of potential challenges may stand in the way of
this vision particularly in the areas of security; privacy; interoperability and standards; legal, regulatory, and
rights issues; and the inclusion of emerging economies. The Internet of Things involves a complex and
evolving set of technological, social, and policy considerations across a diverse set of stakeholders. The
Internet of Things is happening now, and there is a need to address its challenges and maximize its benefits
while reducing its risks.
The Internet Society cares about IoT because it represents a growing aspect of how people and institutions
are likely to interact with and incorporate the Internet and network connectivity into their personal, social, and
economic lives. Solutions to maximizing the benefits of IoT while minimizing the risks will not be found by
engaging in a polarized debate that pits the promises of IoT against its possible perils. Rather, it will take
informed engagement, dialogue, and collaboration across a range of stakeholders to plot the most effective
ways forward.

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For More Information

A vast range of organizations, alliances, and government efforts are taking place around the world to
address issues related to the Internet of Things. The following list of additional information sources is by no
means exhaustive. Rather, is meant as a starting point for further investigation.

Organizations and Alliances Working on the Internet of Things

AIOTI The Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI) was launched by the European Commission
to support the development of a European IoT ecosystem, including standardization policies.
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/alliance-internet-things-innovation-aioti
AllSeen Alliance A 180-member industry group, the AllSeen Alliance promotes widespread adoption of an
interoperable peer communications framework based on AllJoyn for devices and applications in IoT.
https://allseenalliance.org/
ETSI ETSIs Connecting Things effort is developing standards for data security, data management, data
transport and data processing related to potentially connecting billions of smart objects into a
communications network. http://www.etsi.org/technologies-clusters/clusters/connecting-things
IEC 62443/ISA99 Industrial Automation and Control System Security Committee develops standards,
technical reports and procedures for implementing secure industrial automation and control systems.
http://isa99.isa.org/ISA99%20Wiki/Home.aspx
IEEE (including P2413) The IEEE has a dedicated IoT initiative and clearinghouse of information for the
technical community involved in research, implementation, application and usage of IoT technologies.
http://iot.ieee.org/
IERC The European Research Cluster on the Internet of Things coordinates ongoing activities in the area
of IoT across Europe. http://www.internet-of-things-research.eu/
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) The Internets premier standards setting body has an IoT
Directorate that is coordinating related efforts across its working groups, reviewing specifications for
consistency, and monitoring IoT-related activities in other standards groups.
https://trac.tools.ietf.org/area/int/trac/wiki/IOTDirWiki
IIC The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has teamed up with the OIC to accelerate the delivery of an
industrial grade IoT architectural framework. IIC released a reference architecture for IoT in 2015.
http://www.industrialinternetconsortium.org/

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Internet Governance Forum -- IGF sponsors the Dynamic Coalition on IoT, which hosts open meetings to
discuss global challenges that need to be addressed regarding IoT deployment.
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/content/article?id=1217:dynamic-coalition-on-the-internet-ofthings
Internet of Things Consortium This industry group provides consumer research and market education
aimed at driving adoption of IoT products and services. http://iofthings.org/#home
IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance Dedicated to enabling IoT, IPSO seeks to establish IP as the basis
for connecting smart objects through education, research and promotion. http://www.ipso-alliance.org/
ISO/IECJTC-1 ISO issued a preliminary report on IoT in 2014 as well as a Smart Cities report. The group
has ongoing subcommittees in both areas. http://www.iso.org/iso/internet_of_things_report-jtc1.pdf
ISOCs Internet of Food SIG This special interest group leads discussion on the technical infrastructure
standards needed for the food industry in the future. http://internet-of-food.org/
ITU The ITU hosted an IoT Global Standards Initiative, which concluded its activities in July 2015, followed
by the formation of a new Study Group 20 focused on IoT applications. http://www.itu.int/en/ITUT/studygroups/2013-2016/20/Pages/default.aspx
MAPI Foundation -- The Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation (MAPI) s developing
Industrie 4.0 for industrial applications of IoT. https://www.mapi.net/research/publications/industrie-4-0-vsindustrial-internet
OASIS OASIS is developing open protocols to ensure interoperability for IoT. The group chose Message
Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) as its messaging protocol of choice for IoT and has optimized MQTTS-N for wireless sensor networks. OASIS has three technical committees in IoT overseeing MQTT and two
other standards, Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) and OASIS Open Building Information
Exchange (oBIX). https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_cat.php?cat=iot
oneM2M Dedicated to developing machine-to-machine communications architecture and standards, this
multi-vendor group is focused on telemedicine, industrial automation, and home automation. Its goal is a
common M2M Service Layer that can be embedded in hardware and software. http://www.onem2m.org/
Online Trust Alliance This group of security vendors has developed a draft trust framework for IoT
applications, focused on security, privacy, and sustainability. https://otalliance.org/initiatives/internet-things
Open Interconnection Consortium OIC is defining a common communication framework based on
industry standards to wirelessly connect and manage the flow of information among IoT devices. It sponsors
the IoTivity Project, an open source software framework for device-to-device connectivity.
http://openinterconnect.org/

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The Open Management Group This technical standards consortium is developing several IoT standards,
including Data Distribution Service (DDS) and Interaction Flow Modeling Language (IFML) along with
dependability frameworks, threat modeling, and a unified component model for real-time and embedded
systems. http://www.omg.org/hot-topics/iot-standards.htm
Open Web Application Security Project -- OWASP sponsors an IoT Top Ten Project, which is designed to
help manufacturers, developers, and consumers understand related security issues with its list of the most
significant attack surface areas for IoT.
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Internet_of_Things_Top_Ten_Project
Smart Grid Interoperability Panel -- SGIP has an effort called EnergyIoT focused on new opportunities for
IoT within the energy industry. The groups OpenFMB is a utility-led project that is incorporating common
utility data models and IoT communication protocols to create an Open Field Message Bus.
http://sgip.org/focus-resilience
Thread Group This group of smart home vendors is developing a common networking protocol that will
support IP-enabled devices in the home such as appliances, lighting, and security systems.
http://threadgroup.org/About.aspx

Government Policy, Research, and Coordination Efforts

Australia - Australia Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CISRO), Australias
national science agency, is leading research and development efforts into IoT technology.
http://www.csiro.au/en/Research/DPF/Areas/Autonomous-systems/IoT
China The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China has issued a programmatic
document "Guidance on Pushing for an Orderly and Healthy Development of Internet of Things" which
outlines Chinas national policy on IOT. http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2013-02/17/content_2333141.htm
China - Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China has issued the
th

12 five-year plan, an Internet of Things developmental planning document.

http://kjs.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11295040/n11478867/14344522.html
European Union - European Commission Digital Agenda for Europe, Internet of Things The Commission
has been working with member states toward the future deployment of IoT. The group has compiled lists of
European IoT research and pilot projects. http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/Internet-things
European Union - European Commission Internet of Things Expert Group (EO2514) This group of
experts advises the Commission on technical, legal and organizational challenges to IoT deployment across
Europe. http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=2514

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

India The Government of Indias Ministry of Communications & IT is focusing on developing an IoT
industry ecosystem as a top initiative for transforming India into a digital-empowered society and knowledge
economy. http://deity.gov.in/content/internet-things
Republic of Korea - In 2014, Republic of Korea Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning issued a
Master Plan for Building the Internet of Things (IOT) that leads the hyper-connected, digital revolution
(available through the Korea IOT Association website at http://karus.or.kr/uploadFiles/board/KOREAIoT%20Master%20Plan.pdf).
Singapore - SPRING Singapore, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the
Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC), under the purview of the Singapore Standards
Council (SSC), have laid out an Internet of Things (IoT) Standards Outline in support of Singapores
Smart Nation initiative. http://www.spring.gov.sg/NewsEvents/PR/Pages/Internet-of-Things-(IoT)-StandardsOutline-to-Support-Smart-Nation-Initiative-Unveiled-20150812.aspx
https://www.ida.gov.sg/Tech-Scene-News/Tech-News/Tag?tag=internet+of+things
United Kingdom In 2015, the UK Government Chief Scientific Advisor issued a report outlining its IoT
goals, ``The Internet of Things: making the most of the Second Digital
Revolution.https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/409774/14-1230internet-of-things-review.pdf
United Kingdom The UKs communications regulator, Ofcom, has identified several priority areas for
fostering IoT deployments, including spectrum availability, data privacy, network security, and resilience and
network addresses. http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/iot/next-steps/
United States The US Federal Trade Commission formed the Office of Technology Research and
Investigation (OTRI) to explore privacy, security, and payment issues related to IoT among other topics.
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/federal-trade-commission-staff-report-november-2013workshop-entitled-internet-things-privacy/150127iotrpt.pdf

WWW.INTERNETSOCIETY.ORG

Notes and Acknowledgements

The Internet of Things: An Overview
Understanding the Issues and Challenges of a More Connected World
2015 The Internet Society (ISOC).
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/NonCommercial/ShareAlike 4.0 Unported.

This paper was authored by:

Karen Rose - Senior Director, Strategy and Analysis, Internet Society
Scott Eldridge - Principal, Cam & Sprocket LLC and Internet Society Individual Member
Lyman Chapin Principal, Interisle Consulting Group and Internet Society Individual Member
The authors would like to thank the staff members of the Internet Society cross-organizational working group
that honed the concept for this paper and provided critical guidance and feedback throughout the course of
its development: Michael Kende, Graham Minton, Steve Olshansky, Robin Wilton, Greg Wood, and Dan
York. Further thanks are due to the Internet Society staff across the organization who contributed to the
review of this paper and provided their valuable input and insights: Joyce Dogniez, Olaf Kolkman, Megan
Kruse, Ted Mooney, Christian OFlaherty, Maarit Palovirta, Bastiaan Quast, Andrei Robachevsky, Phil
Roberts, Christine Runnegar, Sally Wentworth, Fernando Zarur and Jan or.
Our special appreciation also goes to the Internet Society community of Members, Chapters and
collaborators who generously volunteered their time and expertise to review and comment on previous drafts
of this paper: Nicolas Antoniello, Grunela Astbrink, Hosein Badran, Maarten Botterman, Vint Cerf, Sri
Chandra, Glenn Deen, Tim Denton, Patrik Fltstrm, John Garrity, Andrs Gomez, Richard Hill, Howard
Lee, Mike OReirdan, Robert Pepper, Alejandro Pisanty, Chip Sharp, Bert Wijnen, and Paul Wilson.
Editor: Carolyn Marsan
Cover designer: Michelle Speckler
For more information please see https://www.internetsociety.org/iot
Internet Society
Galerie Jean-Malbuisson, 15
CH-1204 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 807 1444 Fax: +41 22 807 1445
www.internetsociety.org
1775 Wiehle Ave., Suite 201
Reston, VA 20190 USA
Tel: +1 703 439 2120 Fax: +1 703 326 9881
Email: [email protected]

report-InternetofThings-20151015-en

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